Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | The Cuban MiG-21 vs the UFO

Starting point is 00:00:02 Welcome to bite-sized UFOs, a show where we break down lesser-known UFO cases in 20 minutes or less. And now here's your host, Graham Rendell. Welcome to episode nine of bite-sized UFOs. I'm Graham Rendell, author of UFOs Before Roswell and other books about pilot and aircrew sightings during the 1940s and 1950s. In this installment, let's examine the strange story of a Cuban Air Force jet fighter that was allegedly destroyed whilst trying to intercept a UFO back in a war. in March, 1967. This is a relatively famous case, although many people do not know the full details, which involve the FBI, National Security Agency and an obscure, secretive branch of the US Air Force. This edition of bite-sized UFOs is definitely more than just a meaty morsel. The story begins in

Starting point is 00:00:54 1978 when after noted researcher Stanton T. Friedman and given a lecture on UFOs, a member of the audience approached him and described a lethal encounter off the coast of Cuba in March 1967. The informant was a member of the 6947 Security Squadron based at Homestead Air Force Base near Miami. The 6947 was part of the Air Force Security Service, whose role was to acquire signals intelligence, or sigint, from countries of interest. This involved voice and electronic communications, the results of which were passed to the National Security Agency. Freedom's informant later provided him with a typed statement. In 1967, the role of the 6947th Security Squadron was to make. monitor Cuban Air Force radio communications and radar transmissions. The unit's

Starting point is 00:01:40 Detachment A was based at Naval Air Station Key West in the Florida Keys, just under 100 miles north of the Cuban coastline. On an unknown day in March 1967, Spanish-speaking radio operators belonging to Detachment A picked up transmissions from Cuban Air Force radar controllers who were reporting a bogey, an unknown contact, approaching Cuba from the northeast. The context was flying at 33,000 feet and travelling at around 660 miles per hour. With no sign of the Bogi breaking off its approach, the Cuban controllers authorized a scramble of two MiG21 interceptors from an unknown unit. The closest airbase to Havana operating the type was at San Antonio, around 30 miles to the

Starting point is 00:02:24 southwest of the capital. This housed the 213th Fighter Aviation Regiment. Immediately after the jets were scrambled, Detachment A radio operators listened in as Cuban Air Defence radar controllers guided the pilots towards the bogey. No doubt the latter thought they would go to intercept an American aircraft, possibly an electronic warfare ferret the straight off course. In their book clear intent, in reference to this incident, Barry Greenwood and Lawrence Forcett mentioned the single-seat, Mig 21 UM, in connection with the event. The Mig 21 UM, which was given the NATO code name Mongol B, was the two-seat trainer version of the

Starting point is 00:03:05 Big 21 fishbed interceptor. The type did have underwing pylons for missiles, but probably would not have been a flight leader's aircraft. The latter would almost certainly have been a single seat MiG 21, but which variant would have been used by the Cubans back in 1967. Russia had supplied MiG-15 faggots to Cuba a month after the 1961 Bay of Pigs operation and subsequently provided MiG 17 frescoes in 1964. Radar equipped MiG-19 farmers also arrived on the island in 1961, but these were replaced by MiG-21s in 1966, the latter having been operated in Cuba since 1962. Initially flown by Russian pilots and wearing red stars, the MiG-21s were repainted in Cuban colours and then passed to local control in 1963. The original batch of MiG-21's delivered were the F-13 variant codenamed Fishbed C by NATO. However, between 1966 and 1967, at least 24 MiG-21 Pfm Fishbed F interceptors were delivered to Cuba, and these were based at San Antonio, close to the capital.

Starting point is 00:04:19 The MiG-21 F-13s were sent to a base in the southeast of the island. Given that these newer interceptors were available close to Havana in March 19, is almost certain that two single-seek 21 PFMs were scrambled on the day in question. Vectored to visual range by ground control intercept radar, the two MiG-21's approach to within three miles of the bogey. The interceptors were armed with air-to-air missiles, almost certainly Vimple K-13s, noted NATO as the A-A-2 atoll.

Starting point is 00:04:52 They may have also had GP9 centerline gun packs fitted with single 23mm cannon. According to Friedman's source, the flight commander provided a description of the target to his ground controller. It was a bright metallic sphere, which had no markings, control services, or any appendages whatsoever.

Starting point is 00:05:12 Attempts to contact the bogey by radio failed. It is unclear whether ground stations or the intercepted pilots were involved in this action. Friedman's informant told him that the flight commander was then apparently ordered by his ground control intercept station, to engage the intruder. He armed his K-13s and managed to lock onto the bogey.

Starting point is 00:05:31 This meant that the radar-seeker heads on the missiles had acquired their target. All it was required was for the pilot to launch his weapons. He confirmed these were armed and locked over the radio. Seconds later, the flight commander's MIG disintegrated without smoke or flame. His wingman started screaming over the radio that his commander was gone. Radar controllers on the ground watched as the bogey then accelerated, climbed to around 98,000 feet, heading south-southeast in the direction of South America. Although United States Air Force Unit, Detachment A sent an intelligence spot report to the National

Starting point is 00:06:06 Security Agency, as per standing instructions to report the loss of any aircraft belonging to a hostile power, such as Cuba. Despite procedures requiring acknowledgement of the report, none apparently came. A follow-up message was therefore apparently sent, and this elicited an unusual response. Just a few hours later, Detachment A received orders to ship all tapes, records and any other material relating to the incident to the NSA, and to list the loss of the Cuban MiG-21 interceptor in its official log as equipment malfunction. According to Friedman's informant, some 15 to 20 members of the Security Squadent Detachment were informed of, or had listened in on, the incident as it unfolded. Stan Friedman passed on details of the case to the National Enquirer's Bob Pratt. He fired off a Freedom of Information request to the NSA. In turn, Pratt also forwarded the details of the incident to Robert Todd,

Starting point is 00:07:08 a UFO researcher who was also trying to obtain the release of various UFO details through Foyer. Todd would later gain notoriety as the first person to link the Project Mughal balloon to the Roswell crash, believing that the debris was nothing more than the misidentification of radar reflectors and that overactive imaginations had filled in the rest. However, back in 1978, he was a 24-year-old researcher, happy enough to contact government institutions to try and obtain details of UFOs through FOIA. This relatively young researcher would soon find himself embroiled in the middle of what appeared to be an investigation by the FBI,

Starting point is 00:07:47 except the agents were interested in him and his sources, rather than attempting to discover more details about the Cuban Mig 21 case. Between February and July 1978, Todd sent fire requests to the United States Air Force, US Navy, NSA and CIA, but did not succeed in obtaining any useful information. On 10th of March, the CIA went as far as suggesting that he might want to check with the Cuban government for records about the incident. Todd advised both the NSA and the Air Force on 14th July that he would be doing just that, since neither organisation had cooperated with him. He asked them to inform him just what information should not be provided in his request to the Cuban authorities, and gave the two bodies 20 days to reply. Their official response came much quicker.

Starting point is 00:08:40 Two FBI agents showed up at Todd's house on 28 July 1978, read him his rights, and accepted his decision to waive his right to silence, the UFO researcher believing that he had done nothing wrong. In response to a question about whether he had ever written to a foreign government, Todd answered that he had made an innocent inquiry to the Soviet Union. One of the FBI men confirmed that the NSA had asked the Bureau to investigate him as the former had no law enforcement function of its own, indicating that they knew about or had copies of his 14th July letter, together with a copy of Stanton Freeman's informant's type statement attached, the agents asked Todd to identify the source of the latter. He replied that a researcher had provided a reporter with his details and that the reporter had passed them on to him. He identified Bob Pratt as the reporter in question, but not Friedman as the researcher, and did not know who the original source was. Asking the agents whether any of the information in the Security Squadron Specialist Statement was classified, and at what level, the older of the two FBI men, dressed in a white suit, answered, some of the information is classified, most of it is bullshit. Todd then informed the agents that via FOIA he would be requesting a copy of the FBI's file regarding their investigation of him. The agents replied that they couldn't send that information as it was classified, despite him having just given them it.

Starting point is 00:10:12 Afterwards, Todd reported the agent's visit to Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, who contacted the FBI's Philadelphia Field Division spokesman on 31 July and inquired about the investigation. The spokesman there claimed no knowledge of the affair. The following day, a special agent spoke to Citizens Against U.S. UFO secrecy, but refused to confirm that an investigation had taken place, just that if one was, then a statement might be put out when it was concluded. Believing that they were being given the runaround, sentences against UFO secrecy contacted FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and finally received a callback from the spokesman's supervisor there. He stated the following.

Starting point is 00:10:58 We never confirm who we've talked to or who we haven't talked to. We never do that. Whether we have had agents talk to him or they haven't, I don't know. But even if I did, we wouldn't confirm or deny it. An NSA spokesman who was contacted afterwards refused to even comment about another agency's operation. On 4 August 1978, Todd received a call from the Chief of the Torts and Freedom of Information Branch, part of the Air Force's Judge Advocate General's office. This was the last day of the 20-day limit he had set in his 14th July letter to the Air Force. force. A Major Finley stated that if the Cuban incident was true, then it contained classified

Starting point is 00:11:39 information, and he wanted to know how many copies of the informant statement that Todd possessed, as someone might come to pick them up. Asked whether secrecy was totally compromised, given that by that point the details of the Cuban case had been widely disseminated, the officer told him that he wasn't qualified to comment on that. Four days later, Todd received word from the NSA to inform him that they could find no records to support that the Cuban incident had even taken place, but that the alleged manner that the information had been provided was presumably an unauthorised disclosure in violation of the law.

Starting point is 00:12:14 They further advised him that he was now free to discuss the case with anybody he wanted, including the Cuban government. Asked to provide under FOIA copies of all documents generated due to his requests for information about the case, the United States Air Force would only release letters that Todd himself had sent and recede from them. The Air Force did, however, list 10 documents which they would not provide

Starting point is 00:12:38 copies of due to these being classified under the National Security provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. This suggested that the Cuban incident was a real event, if one not necessarily related to a UFO encounter. As for Robert Todd, according to Citizens Against UFO Secrecy's August 1978 newsletter, just cause, he was going to stop researching UFOs, presumably as a result of the official attention and the runaround he'd received. If he did quit the field, it wasn't a permanent move, as his name would then crop up during discussion of the infamous Roswell case during the mid-1990s. Todd passed away in March 2007. An FBI investigation and a refusal to admit that the case even took place at all by the Air Force and the NSA was interesting enough. It might even make one suspect

Starting point is 00:13:27 that the authorities were desperate to warn off someone who had the beginnings of a good story, But what about the truth of the tale? Did a Cuban MiG-21 disintegrate due to an encounter with a UFO, or was something much more mundane, although relatively exotic in terms of man-made technology, involved? According to a former NSA officer who was assigned to Homestead Air Force Base

Starting point is 00:13:49 and who worked with an Air Force officer from the security squadron allegedly involved in the Cuban incident, his discussions with other former officials there about the case, failed to turn up any memories of UFO involvement. However, it was suggested that the story, if true, sounded like a Cuban attempt to shoot down an American spy plane, and the flight profile of the bogey indicated that the Lockheed A-12 might have been involved. This was a smaller and lighter precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird supersonic reconnaissance platform.

Starting point is 00:14:25 A-12 aircrew did train to overfly Cuba, but apparently no aircrew. did so as the high-flying but much slower U-2 was considered adequate for the task. Had a Cuban-Mig-21 pilot stretched his aircraft well beyond its airframe limits, or his own flying ability, in a forlorn attempt to reach and shoot down a high-flying supersonic spyplane, or was something more mysterious, the object of this interception, one which had apparently destroyed the pilot's aircraft when he initiated what to any other military flyer, have been considered a hostile act, namely locking on a live weapon system. We may never know the truth, but adding the involvement of the FBI, the NSA plus the Air Force, and then further

Starting point is 00:15:12 questions crop up, such as was the FBI interest in Robert Todd simply an attempt to determine whether an authorized disclosure of secret yet non-UFO-related details had occurred. That's it for this ninth installment of bite-sized UFOs. Until next time, remember, bite-sized UFOs continues to be all about the facts. This has been bite-sized UFOs with your host, Graham Rendell. Be sure to rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. For a full video version of this episode, subscribe to the Bite Sised UFOs YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.

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Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | The Cuban MiG-21 vs the UFO

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