Aeroflot flight tracked by Snowden reporters lands in Cuba with little fanfare
Snowden's whereabouts unknown as he misses flight; Julian Assange says he's safe and healthy
An Aeroflot flight from Moscow that was being closely tracked by media organisations in case Edward Snowden, the former security contractor who revealed details of US surveillance programmes, was on board, landed in Cuba uneventfully on Monday.
Russian reporters on board the flight and foreign press gathered at Havana airport reported no sightings of Snowden or any unusual security.
When the captain of the Aeroflot plane emerged from customs he was surrounded by photographers. He pulled out his own camera, took picture of the photographers and said: “No Snowden, no.”
Members of the aircraft’s crew also told reporters on the plane soon after take-off that Snowden was not on board, according to a Reuters reporter who was on the flight.
Snowden's game of cat-and-mouse with US authorities took an unexpected twist ywhen the fugitive failed to appear on a flight he had apparently booked from Moscow to Cuba.
His disappearance raised the possibility that the Russian government was considering the demands by the Obama administration to return him to the United States, or perhaps questioning him for its own purposes.