Pubdate: Mon, 23 Apr 2001
Source: Herald, The (WA)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190

BUSH: CIA'S ROLE LIMITED

Missionaries Received Permission To Land Before They Were Shot Out Of 
The Sky, Relatives Claim In Dispute With Peruvian Officials' Reports

WASHINGTON - A Peruvian jet shot down a plane carrying American 
missionaries just one hour after being notified by a CIA-operated 
surveillance plane that it might be a flight ferrying illegal drugs, 
a U.S. intelligence official said Sunday.

Meanwhile, relatives of the missionaries said the plane had received 
clearance to land moments before it was fired on without warning, a 
contention at odds with Peru's military, which said the plane failed 
to identify itself and was flying without a flight plan.

Missionary Veronica Bowers, 35, and her infant daughter, Charity, 
were both killed by the 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. anti-drug 
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.

The Baptist group's director of aviation, Hank Scheltema, 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.

President Bush on Sunday pledged to find out what went wrong, but 
said the role of the U.S. surveillance plane was "simply to pass on 
information" about aircraft suspected of carrying drugs.

Specifically, the American role is to spot planes' tail numbers and 
identify aircraft that fail to file flight plans, Bush said.

The surveillance flights, he said, have been suspended "until we get 
to the bottom of the situation, to fully understand all the facts, to 
understand what went wrong in this terrible tragedy."

The U.S. official said the crew of the CIA plane (which is owned by 
the Defense Department) included a civilian pilot, co-pilot and 
systems operator who work under contract for the CIA. Also on board 
was a Peruvian air force officer who was responsible for coordinating 
with Peruvian authorities on the ground.

The U.S. intelligence official said the three CIA employees aboard 
the Cessna Citation jet were not involved in the decision to shoot 
down the plane carrying the missionaries. This official said the CIA 
employees believed the Peruvian air force officer, once he was unable 
to contact the other plane's pilot on three different radio 
frequencies, moved too quickly through the established procedures for 
determining what action to take against the suspect plane.

Under current agreements, Peru can use U.S. data only to attack a 
plane that 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.

Richmond Donaldson said that he saw a copy of a flight plan Saturday, 
which he believes his son submitted before making the flight.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe