Gross mentioned he had a Cuban overflight number, which allowed him to fly through Cuban airspace. I asked him what would have happened if he’d had engine or weather trouble and had been forced to land in Cuba. After all, the plane carried classified military hardware, and relations with Cuba were at that time still in a deep freeze. “First, I would have torched the plane on the runway.” This was, he explained, the standard protocol with airborne lidar.
