A Boeing 787 captain flying to Miami shared an aviation curiosity this week that few passengers might imagine: in the Florida Keys, a completely flat area at sea level, pilots must climb to a higher minimum safety altitude than that required to cross the Pyrenees.
The explanation, according to the pilot and psychologist Alfonso de Bertodano, creator of the channel @perdiendoelmiedoavolar, has its origins in the Cold War.
«When we arrived in Florida, in the southwestern part, in the Keys, we found that despite being at sea level, we have a minimum safety altitude of 15,200 feet, about 4,600 meters,» said Bertodano, explaining that this altitude surpasses the 13,600 feet required to fly over the Pyrenees, a mountain range with peaks over 3,000 meters.
The balloon that transmits to Cuba
The entity responsible for the air restriction in southern Florida is a tethered aerostat known as «Fat Albert», anchored in Cudjoe Key, just 185 kilometers from Havana.
The balloon is part of the infrastructure of Radio Martí and TV Martí, media outlets funded by the U.S. government to provide information to the Cuban population outside the control of the state regime.
According to Bertodano's explanation in the video, "in the 1980s, during the Cold War and under the Reagan administration, Radio Martí and Televisión Martí were created to broadcast information about what was happening in the world, including sports, interviews, and music for young people, so that all that information could reach Cuba."
Radio Martí began its broadcasts on May 20, 1985, a date chosen to coincide with the anniversary of Cuban independence. TV Martí was launched in 1990, using from day one a elevated transmitter precisely by that balloon over Cudjoe Key.
The system, technically referred to as Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), also performs radar surveillance functions and supports drug enforcement operations in the Florida Strait.
"They made a hot air balloon that held an antenna, and with that antenna, they managed to get all the information to Cuba. And that's why, to this day, as transmission continues, when you pass through that area, you have to fly higher than if you were crossing the Pyrenees," the pilot summarized.
Bertodano described the discovery as "a curious mix of aviation, history, and Cold War hidden in an aviation chart."
The aerostat continues to be reported as operational in 2026, although the recent history of Radio and TV Martí has been turbulent. In March 2025, the Trump administration ordered a restructuring of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) that resulted in the temporary shutdown of the Radio Martí transmitters in the Florida Keys and mass layoffs, generating strong reactions within the Cuban-American community.
The measure also sparked an intense debate about the future of these broadcasters, with Cuban-American politicians coming to their defense in response to what they viewed as a weakening of a key tool for informing Cubans on the island.
Bertodano's video transformed a technical curiosity from an aeronautical chart into a history lesson that connects commercial aviation, the media, and the decades of tension between Washington and Havana.
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