Edward Snowden Cuba-bound?

Just speculating at this stage

Moscow-Cuba plane detour sparks speculation Snowden may be on board

An Aeroflot plane en route from Moscow to Havana has deviated from its course, FlightAware live flight tracking indicates. The news has sparked online speculation that NSA leaker Edward Snowden may be aboard the aircraft.

RT,

11 July, 2013

Aeroflot flight 150 to Havana took off from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport at 14:10 pm local time (10:10 GMT) on Thursday. Whistleblower Edward Snowden has been holed up in the airport for the past two weeks.

The flight route usually passes over Scandinavia and across Greenland before turning south over Canada and the United States. However, this time the flight headed west across Europe before continuing its path over the Atlantic Ocean.

The detour has spawned speculation in the media and on Twitter that Snowden may be aboard the plane and that that the plane may be trying to avoid entering US airspace. Snowden is wanted in the US on charges of espionage for revealing secret NSA surveillance programs.

The plane is expected to land in the Cuban capital around 00:30 GMT. Upon its arrival in Havana, it may finally become clear whether Snowden has left Moscow or not.

Under Russian law, air carriers are banned from sharing flight passenger data to third parties, Aeroflot spokesman Andrey Sogrin told RT.

Referring to the flight detour, Sogrin said that “it is difficult to explain now” what exactly was behind the decision, but added that weather conditions or an issue with the flight schedule could be behind the move. In other words, if a flight is delayed, its route is sometimes changed in order to catch up with its expected landing time.

However, Thursday’s flight took off only five minutes later than scheduled, according to the Sheremetyevo airport website.

The July 11 route for Aeroflot 150 from Moscow to Havana, according to flightaware.com flight tracker.

Aviation expert Chris Yates said that flying straight across the ocean might be a bit more risky than sticking to the traditional route.

“Westbound transatlantic flights take particular tracks that are determined by the weather conditions,” he told RT. “It is likely that Snowden is not on board that airplane, but that the North Atlantic Tracks have been moved South because of weather conditions prevailing over Greenland and part of Iceland at the moment,” Yates said.

The usual route for Aeroflot 150 from Moscow to Havana, according to flightaware.com flight tracker.

When Snowden arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong over two weeks ago, the media thought that Snowden was on his way to Havana because he reportedly had a ticket to Cuba. The news caused quite a stir among journalists who rushed to get tickets on the same flight. However, Snowden never boarded the flight.

Snowden first fled the US for Hong Kong. He arrived in Russia on June 23 and has been trapped in the international transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport ever since.

The 30-year-old whistleblower has applied for asylum in over 20 countries around the globe. However, so far only three countries in Latin America – Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua – have said they would grant asylum to the former CIA employee.