Source: FAA/AIA. In addition to their scheduled flights. the Soviets and Bloc nations requested and received permission to operate hundreds of nonscheduled "special" flights. mainly carrying governmentsponsored technical and trade groups. as shown in Table Nine. In 1979. 27 percent of the total sorties were nonscheduled "special flights." These were sharply reduced in 1980 to 17 percent of total flights. due mainly to the cutbacks forced on Soviet flights as a result of the Afghanistan invasion and reduction of Cubanas refugee flights following the refugee sealift operation. Another important statistic is the number of authorized Cuban (Cubana Airlines) overflights permitted across US territory from Montreal to Havana. Cubans in particular has overflown restricted CONUS areas and offshore Atlantic fleet exercises.