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A Cubana de Aviación plane, with registration CU-T1250, was compelled to return to Cuban territory after unsuccessfully attempting to land in Venezuela on the morning of this Thursday.
It is an unusual event in international air traffic that has garnered attention on monitoring platforms and social media in recent hours.
The situation coincides with a climate of high tension in the region, marked by air restrictions, military operations, and security warnings affecting both civilian and state aircraft.
A flight that did not reach its destination
According to data from the digital monitor FlightRadar24, the aircraft - a Russian-made Ilyushin Il-96-300, used both for commercial flights and for transfers of Miguel Díaz-Canel - made several 360-degree turns near Venezuelan airspace before abandoning the landing attempt and returning to Cuba.
The aircraft, which had taken off from an unidentified airport in Havana, subsequently landed in Holguín or Santiago de Cuba, according to the consulted records.
The operation did not have the characteristics of a regular commercial flight: it lacked the public data and identification number typically assigned to such routes, indicating a special or reserved nature of the mission.
A mission related to the Venezuelan crisis
At the beginning of this week, the digital outlet 14yMedio reported that on Monday the aforementioned plane was ready for a mission to repatriate the bodies of 32 Cubans who died in Venezuela, in the context of the recent military offensive by the United States that culminated in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.
According to reports cited in the independent press, the plane was expected to take off with “military personnel who were supposed to stay there,” according to the testimony of an airport employee who requested anonymity.
This type of operation, of a humanitarian and diplomatic nature, would have been carried out with logistics away from the commercial terminal, using military facilities with restricted access for both airport personnel and civilian observers.
The secrecy surrounding this flight reinforces the idea that the mission had significant political or strategic implications.
Aerial surveillance and tensions in the Caribbean
The frustrated landing this Thursday -of which there is no official information regarding its purpose- occurred amid an intensification of aerial activity in the Caribbean.
According to reports from regional media such as La Patilla, this Thursday a sophisticated American reconnaissance drone, MQ-4C Triton, flew over the Venezuelan coastline for hours, in the same area where the Cuban plane made its turns before departing.
It is an unarmed aircraft operated by the U.S. Navy, which departed from the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida and remained over the Caribbean Sea between the air control zones of Curacao and Venezuela.
The MQ-4C Triton has been spotted in recent weeks conducting similar maneuvers off the Venezuelan coast, in a pattern that preceded the so-called "Operation Absolute Resolution," through which the United States carried out the arrest of the Venezuelan leader.
The coincidence between the presence of the drone and the Cuban aircraft's decision to refrain from entering Venezuelan airspace has generated multiple conjectures.
The context of Cubana and its fleet
The aircraft involved, registration CU-T1250, was recently subject to major repairs in Belarus, after which it rejoined the operations of Cubana de Aviación.
The IL-96-300 is the largest and longest-range aircraft of the state airline, but it is also one of the most expensive to operate, in a company that is facing a deep structural crisis due to a lack of parts, route cancellations, and technological obsolescence.
Historically, Cubana has maintained flights to Venezuela as part of the close ties between both governments.
However, the current circumstances—marked by a radical shift in power in Caracas, a U.S. military deployment in the region, and an escalation of restrictive measures—call into question the viability of those air links in the short term.
Official silence and speculation
So far, neither Cubana de Aviación nor the Cuban or Venezuelan authorities have issued public statements regarding this incident.
The reasons for the plane's return have not been clarified, nor has the nature of the mission been officially confirmed.
The usual lack of transparency in both governments has fueled conflicting accounts regarding the purpose of the flight, the reasons for its return, and the operational context in which it occurred.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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