The conversation between tower control in Havana and the pilots of the MiG-23 and MiG-29 reveals how a technical mission culminated in jubilance for the pilots of the government of Fidel Castro and death for the three passengers on the two planes of Brothers to the Rescue.
The following abbreviated version is extracted from the text submitted to the press by the United States delegate to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright.
MiG-29 (to Control): [My] altitude: 1,700.
Control: Are you under the roof of clouds.
MiG-29: Here there are no clouds.
Control: OK. Keep looking underneath of you, to the right...Continue on a course of 90 degrees.
MiG-29: We see three planes. Ok. Their are three planes in movement here. They fly together and later they separate.
...
MiG-23 (to Control): [I'm flying] on a course of 70 [degrees] to the north of Havana.
Control: What is your altitude?
MiG-23: 200
MiG-29 (to Control): The object is to the north of Baracoa. On a course of 270.
MiG-29 (to MiG-23): Their is a very big boat there.
MiG-23 (to MiG-29): I just saw it.
Control (to MiG-29): Turn on your radar.
MiG-29: Connected.
Control (to MiG-23): Search [for your objective] below you.
MiG-29: From below, around 30 kilometers from Baracoa beach.
Control: What altitude does it have?
MiG-23: 200.
Control: Understood. The objectives are at an altitude between 200 and 300 meters.
Control (to MiG-23): Ascend to 1,000.
MiG-23: Understood. Altitude 1,000.
MiG-29: (to Control):[My] altitude is 1,500.
...
Control(MiG-23): Connect the UVD [ultraviolet detector].
MiG-23: Understood. Connect UVD.
MiG-29: Connected
Control (to MiG-23): The objective is to the north of Santa Fe at a distance of 25 kilometers.
MiG-23: Understood. Now it is on a course of 180 and an altitude of 1,000.
MiG-29: OK, the objective is in sight. It is a small plane.
MiG-23: OK, we have it in sight, we have it in sight. It is a small plane, a small plane.
MiG-29: It is white, white.
MiG-23: I'm going to rise to an altitude of 2,000.
MiG-23 (to MiG-29): It is white and blue.
MiG-29 (to Control): White and blue.
MiG-23 (to Control): Give me instructions.
MiG-29 (to Control): Instructions [to me as well].
MiG-23 (to Control): Listen, authorize me [Pilot interrupts].
MiG-29 (to Control): Lets over-fly it, lets overfly it.
MiG-23 (to MiG-29): If we overfly it, things are going to be complicated.
MiG-29 (to Control): I've got it fixed, I've got it fixed [in my sights].
MiG-23 (to Control): We have it fixed. Give us authorization.
MiG-29 (to Control): It is a Cessna 337.
MiG-23 (to Control): That one, that one. Give us the [expletive].
Control (to MiG-29): Authorized to destroy.
MiG-29 (to Control): I'm going to fire on it.
Control: Authorized. Authorized to destroy.
MiG-29: Understood. Already received.
Control (to MiG-29): Have you fired already? MiG-29: (to Control): First shot. [Pause and scream:] We took out his balls! We took out his balls!
MiG-23 (to MiG-29): [Screams, but is not understood]. MiG-29: We took out his balls!
MiG-23 (to MiG-29): Wait, wait, look and see where it fell.
MiG-29 (to MiG-23): Mark the location where we shot them down.
MiG-23 (to MiG-29): This one won't mess around anymore.
...
Pilot: The other is destroyed, the other is destroyed. Fatherland or death. The other is down also.
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