Plane with eight Cubans lands at Florida airport

KEY WEST, Fla. -- A two-seat cargo plane crammed with eight members of a Cuban family, including a baby, landed Monday at the Key West airport in an apparent bid for asylum by those aboard.

The little yellow biplane was escorted by two U.S. fighter jets as it landed late in the morning, airport director Peter Horton said.

Under U.S. law, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are virtually guaranteed the right to stay and eventually apply for permanent residency.

The Cubans were being interviewed and were expected to be released later to relatives in Florida, said Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman Maria Elena Garcia.

The group consisted of four men, three women and an infant girl, Garcia said. One of the men is an experienced pilot, she said.

It was not immediately known where the Cubans took off from. Their names were not released.

Two Florida National Guard jets were scrambled from Homestead Air Reserve Base after the plane was spotted on radar, said Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Ron Tittle. "We shadowed them and got the aircraft to divert to Key West," he said. "That's a typical type thing."

There was no immediate comment from the Cuban government on the incident. It was not mentioned on state-controlled radio or television.

Cubans have used a variety of mostly Soviet-built aircraft to leave the island in recent years. Some were stolen by their pilots, others were hijacked.