Pubdate: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 2001 Houston Chronicle Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198 Author: CRAIG MAURO, Associated Press PERUVIANS SHOOT DOWN U.S. PLANE MISSIONARY, BABY DIE IN ERRANT ATTACK LIMA, Peru -- A Peruvian air force jet shot down a plane carrying American missionaries in Peru's Amazon jungle region Friday, killing a mother and her infant child and wounding the pilot, U.S. and missionary officials said. "The Peruvian pilot mistook it for an airplane transporting contraband drugs," Benjamin Ziff told the Associated Press. The Rev. E.C. Haskell, spokesman for the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, said the group's plane was attacked as it flew from the Peruvian border to the city of Iquitos. Missionary Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, of Muskegon, Mich. and her 6-month-old adopted daughter, Charity, were both killed and veteran missionary pilot Kevin Donaldson of Morgantown, Pa. was wounded, he said. Donaldson was able to make an emergency landing in the Amazon River, said Haskell. Also on board and unhurt were Bowers' husband, Jim, 37, and their 8-year-old son Cory, said Haskell, speaking from the group's office in Harrisburg, Pa. Mario Justo, chief of the Iquitos airport, said that a single-engine plane belonging to the missionary group crashed at 11:20 a.m. in the Amazon. Iquitos is 625 miles northeast of Lima. Donaldson's wife, Bobbi, told the AP that her husband was shot in the leg and lost control of the plane, which was in flames, but managed to guide the aircraft into the Amazon River, where it flipped over. After the crash, the occupants sat on the pontoons for about 45 minutes before being rescued by some Peruvians in a dugout canoe, Haskell said. "All the natives there knew them; it wasn't like they were strangers," Haskell said. They were taken to a clinic. Veronica Bowers was holding her daughter on her lap when a bullet struck her in the back, killing both her and the child, Bobbi Donaldson said in a telephone interview from Pebas, near the crash site, about 100 miles east of Iquitos. "So far as we know now, earlier today, a Peruvian air force aircraft shot down a private airplane carrying several American missionaries," said a State Department official. "Apparently the Peruvian pilot mistook it for an airplane that was transporting contraband drugs. We deeply regret this tragedy and are in the process of determining the loss of life and injury to the passengers and crew on the plane," the official said. A Peruvian Air Force spokesman said the Air Force shot down the plane because the missionary pilot had failed to heed warnings to land. Earlier, the Air Force denied it had approached the plane. "After carrying out international identification and interception procedure ... which the pilot ignored ... the Peruvian Air Force plane opened fire as a last resort," the Ministry of Defense said. - ----------------------------------------- Reuters contributed to this story. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom