Every year, prior to the beginning of the hurricane season, Cuban and U.S. authorities exchange on the submission of requests for overflight of Cuban airspace by U.S. hurricane hunter aircraft. The year 2023 has been no exception.
These operations are carried out on the basis of a procedure that regulates the terms for the presentation and authorization of requests for entry, transit and operation in the airspace controlled by the Cuban government.
Since yesterday, a distorted and malicious handling has been observed in some digital sites that for purposes of speculation and disinformation claim that Cuba banned the flight of a hurricane hunter aircraft to explore Hurricane Idalia. This is false information and U.S. authorities are aware of it.
In their usual crusade, these sites always try to affect the already deteriorated bilateral relations and on this occasion they intend to damage the traditional bilateral cooperation mechanism existing in meteorology and climate, formalized through the memorandum signed in 2016 between the Institute of Meteorology of Cuba and NOAA.
Cuba reiterates its commitment to comply with the procedures agreed with the U.S. for the effective confrontation of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, in the interest of guaranteeing human safety and minimizing material losses in Cuba, the United States and other countries in our region that also benefit from this mechanism.