Starting a year before the shootdown, the Cuban government filed multiple protests on repeated violations of its airspace by BTTR aircraft overflying populated zones and dropping thousands of leaflets and other materials calling for popular insurrection against the government.
The FAA opened a protracted investigation, met with BTTR president Jose Basulto, and warned him multiple times not to continue his โtauntingโ provocations. The agency took steps to suspend his pilotโs license but allowed him to keep flying, even as he repeatedly filed false flight plans.
High-level U.S. officials, including White House Cuba point man Richard Nuccio, State Department undersecretary Peter Tarnoff, and Secretary of Transportation Federico Peรฑa repeatedly expressed their concerns to the FAA that BTTR flights should be permanently grounded and repeatedly warned that Cubaโs redlines to protect its security should be taken seriously. Their efforts to press the FAA to clip Basultoโs wings failed. Only after the shootdown did the FAA issue a concrete โcease and desistโ order against Basulto for what it called โcareless or recklessโ operations that โendanger the lives or property of others.โ