BY ELAINE DE VALLE

It once flew over the Florida Straits every weekend to pluck Cuban rafters from the treacherous sea. Today, it pierces the sky only once a year -- on the anniversary of the day in 1996 its pilot escaped death at the hands of Cuban MiGs that shot down two other Cessnas over international waters and killed four volunteers with the group.

Now, Brothers to the Rescue founder and president Jose Basulto wants to sell its only remaining plane -- the last symbol of its organization -- to raise money for hurricane relief efforts in Cuba.

''It's all we have left, our only asset,'' Basulto said Monday, a day before he planned to announce the sale publicly.

''What we are doing is responding to a need for which Brothers to the Rescue was created, which was to serve brothers in need,'' Basulto said.

Brothers to the Rescue stopped flying over the Straits in 2003 as a result of the wet foot/dry foot policy, which requires U.S. authorities to return Cubans caught at sea, but to allow those who make it to land to stay.

The plane, now parked at the Opa-locka airport, was flown only once a year -- Feb. 24 -- to ''marker's point'' where floral wreaths are thrown into the sea in memory of four fallen Brothers.

NEW MISSION

But back-to-back hurricanes Gustav and Ike gave the plane -- appraised Monday at between $95,000 and $100,000 -- a new mission, Basulto said.

''The one in danger now is the biggest raft of all, the island,'' he said.

The plane is the last remaining aircraft of the Brothers fleet, which once numbered six.

One crashed into the Everglades. Another crashed on Cay Sal in the Bahamas. Two were destroyed on Feb. 24, 1996, when Cuban MiGs shot them out of the sky and killed two pilots and two passengers. The other was sold to raise funds for the group's humanitarian efforts and the college education of one pilot injured in an accident.

This last plane served as a ''a reminder of a crime that was committed without response, without consequences to the people who committed it,'' said Basulto.

"I would have rather seen it go to a museum, but I cannot ignore the fact that there is a value to the aircraft, a monetary value that can be put to the use that donations [to the group] were intended for, which is to help the people in Cuba in a time of need.

SYMBOLIC VALUE

''That is the reason we are putting it up for sale,'' he said, adding that he hopes someone else sees the symbolic value.

''There might be somebody that agrees with us that the aircraft should be in a museum and would buy it for that purpose,'' Basulto said.

The proceeds would go to the Sisters of Charity in Miami, who regularly send food and medicines to be distributed in Cuba.