B737 first officer believes that his flight to mugm may have entered cuban airspace at an inappropri...

Narrative:

During a ferry flight; we were cleared 'as filed.' final cruise altitude was FL310 to be maintained till davol intersection which was our filed 'TOD' (top of descent). We received positive clearance to follow such flight plan from both kingston center and havana control. Upon later review of our flight we (my captain and I) came to question the legality of such company approved flight plan since even if we're properly cleared by havana control to enter their airspace at FL310 (as per our flight plan approved and filed by our company dispatch department) we should have crossed davol intersection (cuban airspace entry gate) at an altitude below FL180. Since cuban afs for military protocol requires to be conducted under VFR denying them of altitude at or above FL180. Our concern as a flight crew is that because the current lack of proper training and supervision of some of our dispatchers; other crews may be misled in following company approved flight planning; illegal in nature leading to a violation with punitive consequences; if not worse.in the future we will be extremely critical of future services provided by our company dispatch while reassured proper remedial training has been provided and improved supervision is in place. Safety through knowledge and professionalism should be the common goal.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 First Officer believes that his flight to MUGM may have entered Cuban airspace at an inappropriate altitude since Cuban AFS for military protocol requires flights to be conducted under VFR denying them of altitude at or above FL180.

Narrative: During a ferry flight; we were cleared 'as filed.' Final cruise altitude was FL310 TO BE MAINTAINED till DAVOL intersection which was our filed 'TOD' (top of descent). We received positive clearance to follow such flight plan from BOTH Kingston Center AND Havana Control. Upon later review of our flight we (my Captain and I) came to question the legality of such company approved flight plan since even if we're properly cleared by Havana Control to enter their airspace at FL310 (as per our flight plan approved and filed by our company dispatch department) we should have crossed DAVOL intersection (Cuban airspace entry gate) at an altitude below FL180. Since Cuban AFS for military protocol requires to be conducted under VFR denying them of altitude at or above FL180. Our concern as a flight crew is that because the current lack of proper training and supervision of some of our dispatchers; other crews may be misled in following company approved flight planning; illegal in nature leading to a violation with punitive consequences; if not worse.In the future we will be extremely critical of future services provided by our company dispatch while reassured proper remedial training has been provided and improved supervision is in place. Safety through knowledge and professionalism should be the common goal.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1327138
Time
Date	201601
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	MUGM.Airport
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 13626 Flight Crew Type 3300
Events
Anomaly	Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance

B737 first officer believes that his flight to mugm may have entered cuban airspace at an inappropriate altitude since cuban afs for military protocol requires flights to be conducted under VFR denying them of altitude at or above FL180.