Miami - The novice US pilot suspected of stealing an aircraft in the Florida Keys and crash-landing it in Cuba was a 55-year-old pizza delivery man with a history of mental illness and no apparent ties to Cuba, a sheriff's spokeswoman said yesterday.
The pilot, Mr Milo John Reese, had been taking flying lessons for about two weeks from Paradise Aviation, which operates out of Florida Keys-Marathon Airport in the Middle Keys.
He took off on his first solo flight on Tuesday in a Cessna 172 owned by the flight school and was supposed to circle the airport and land. Instead he flew the aircraft to Cuba and crash-landed on rocky terrain near the coast close to Havana. US officials said he was being treated at a Havana hospital for unspecified injuries.