Pubdate: Mon, 23 Apr 2001
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2001 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Bennett Roth

BUSH VOWS INQUIRY INTO DOWNED PLANE

QUEBEC CITY - President Bush on Sunday pledged to fully investigate the 
circumstances of the downing of a small plane of American missionaries by 
the Peruvian air force after the aircraft was mistakenly identified, with 
the help of U.S. military officials, as carrying drugs.

During a news conference at the Summit of the Americas, the president said 
the United States' role in such drug interdiction cases was to help 
countries identify planes that fail to file flight plans.

"Our role was to simply pass on information," he said. "But we'll get to 
the bottom of the situation. I want everybody in my country to understand 
that we weep for the families whose lives have been affected."

In Lima, Peru, some of the victims' relatives said Sunday the plane had 
received clearance to land moments before Peru's air force fired on it 
without warning.

The relatives' comments were at odds with statements from Peru's military 
that said the plane failed to identify itself and was flying without a 
flight plan in an area frequented by drug traffickers.

Bush would not detail the role the U.S. may have played in the downing of 
the plane, which killed a 35-year-old woman and her 7-month-old daughter.

But he said the United States has long been involved in helping South 
American nations identify airplanes that might be carrying illegal drugs.

"We've suspended such flights until we get to the bottom of the situation, 
to fully understand all the facts, to understand what went wrong in this 
terrible tragedy," he said.

Bush said he has spoken to Peruvian Prime Minister Javier Perez de Cuellar, 
who "expressed his government's sincere condolences."

Missionary Veronica "Roni" Bowers and her infant daughter, Charity, were 
killed by Peruvian gunfire Friday, apparently by a single bullet that 
passed through the woman's body and entered the child's skull as she sat on 
her mother's lap, her brother-in-law said.

The single-engine plane, which was being tracked by a U.S. counterdrug 
surveillance plane, had contacted the air tower in the jungle city of 
Iquitos and received landing clearance about 10 minutes before it was 
downed, said Richmond Donaldson, father of pilot Kevin Donaldson.

Hank Scheltema, director of aviation for the Association of Baptists for 
World Evangelism, said the missionary plane and the fighter jet were 
communicating on different radio frequencies. He said the Iquitos control 
tower recorded the missionary pilot's panicked radio call to controllers.

"They have recorded his voice when he was crying, `They're going to kill 
us! They're going to kill us!' " Scheltema said.

The pilot's brother, Gordon Donaldson, said the plane had been based in 
Peru for 13 years and was one of only a handful of civilian planes based at 
the Iquitos airport. It was well known to local aviation authorities, he said.

After being hit by the gunfire, the Cessna 185 crash-landed in the Amazon 
river near the jungle town of Huanta, about 625 miles northeast of Lima. 
The survivors clung to the pontoons in the river waters. Peruvians rescued 
the pilot, Donaldson, who suffered a crushed leg bone and severed arteries 
in his foot caused by the gunfire, and the husband and son of the woman killed.

The husband, Jim Bowers, 37, of Muskegon, Mich., was debriefed by Peruvian 
authorities before returning to North Carolina to visit relatives Sunday 
with the couple's 6-year-old son, Cory. Donaldson, 42, of Morgantown, Pa., 
was flown to Philadelphia on Sunday. He reportedly was taken to a hospital 
near Reading, Pa., for surgery.

A key dispute is whether the seaplane had a flight plan when it took off 
Friday from a section of the Amazon where Peru, Brazil and Colombia are 
separated.

A U.S. government official in Washington, speaking on condition of 
anonymity, said an American anti-drug surveillance plane alerted Peruvians 
that the missionaries' plane was operating without a flight plan in 
airspace frequented by drug runners. He said it was up to Peruvian 
officials to then identify the plane's intentions, and, he said, they 
mistakenly decided it was carrying drugs.

Under current agreements, Peru can use U.S. data to attack a plane only if 
it is flying without a flight plan. Peruvian fighters must first try to 
make radio contact and visually signal a suspect aircraft to land for 
inspection before opening fire. If the pilot balks, warning shots must be 
fired.

"None of that was done," said Jim Bowers' older brother, Phil, a trained 
pilot who sat in on his brother's debriefing by Peruvian authorities.

The Peruvian air force, which has expressed regret for the incident, said 
in a statement Saturday that the missionary plane entered Peruvian airspace 
unannounced from Brazilian territory and was fired upon after Donaldson 
failed to respond to "international procedures of identification and 
interception."

Phil Bowers disputed that version. "There was no communication," he said. 
"It happened very fast. The planes flew by first, did some swooping and 
then came in from behind and started shooting."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart