Pubdate: Tue, 02 Oct 2001
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2001 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.herald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Keny Feijoo
Note: Herald staff writers Elaine de Valle, Phil Long and Jacqueline Charles
contributed to this story

DRUG-ERADICATION PLANE MISSING IN BAHAMAS

A small plane that was part of a Colombian drug-eradication program 
disappeared Monday in the Bahamas on its way to Patrick Air Force Base in 
Cocoa Beach, State Department and Coast Guard officials said.

The two-seater plane left the Turks and Caicos Islands early Monday 
morning, said Susan Pittman, a State Department spokeswoman in Washington, D.C.

The Federal Aviation Administration told the pilot to try to land in 
Freeport, but that was the last contact with the aircraft, said Verla 
Davis, a spokeswoman at Patrick, home of the State Department Air Wing. She 
said she did not know why the pilot was urged to land.

The Coast Guard said the only person aboard was a pilot with 20 years of 
experience with the State Department, which contracts with Virginia-based 
DynCorp to do the spray program. The pilot's identity was not released.

Pittman said the plane was on its way back from Colombia when it stopped in 
the Turks on Sunday night. It took off Monday morning.

At about 10:20 a.m., the Miami Airport Control Tower lost communication 
with the pilot.

Early today, the Coast Guard still had one plane searching for the aircraft.

Petty Officer Robert Suddarth said the pilot might have been looking for a 
spot to land because of bad weather conditions.

Pittman said she also was briefed that there might have been problems with 
the weather.

In 1996, the Clinton administration quietly contracted with U.S. civilian 
pilots to fly drug-crop eradication missions over Colombian territory that 
is protected by well-armed guerrillas working in concert with narcotics 
traffickers.

Eradication pilots have one of the most perilous jobs in the drug war, 
flying at treetop level over coca and poppy fields protected by armed 
rebels and growers.
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MAP posted-by: Beth