Pubdate: Tue,  8 Apr 2003
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2003 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Andrew Selsky

COLOMBIA PLANE CRASH KILLS ONE AMERICAN

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A U.S. State Department plane used to fumigate 
drug crops crashed Monday and its American pilot was killed, the U.S. 
Embassy said.

It was not immediately clear if the crash was caused by an accident or if 
it had been shot down, the embassy said.

The American, whose name was not released pending notification of 
relatives, was the fourth to die in three crashes of U.S. government planes 
in Colombia this year.

Three other Americans were killed when their single-engine Cessna plane 
crashed and burned in southern Colombia on March 25 while searching for 
three other Americans who were captured by leftist rebels after their plane 
went down on Feb. 4.

Monday's crash occurred in southwest Colombia's Narino state, where there 
are large plantations of coca, the main ingredient of cocaine. Leftist 
rebels, who along with their paramilitary rivals oversee cocaine production 
in Colombia, have fired at the spray planes in the past.

One U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that 
it was unusual that three planes would go down in such a relatively short 
span of time.

But U.S. officials have often said - both in comments to journalists in 
Colombia and in testimony to the U.S. Congress - that the anti-drug 
missions in Colombia are not risk free.

The crop-dusters, flown by State Department contractors, fly close to the 
ground as they fumigate the coca bushes, and often receive bullet impacts. 
U.S. special forces troops have trained Colombian troops who conduct ground 
sweeps in order to try to protect the spray planes, but it is impossible to 
remove every threat.

The U.S. Embassy had no further details on the latest crash.

Colombia produces most of the cocaine in the world. hardline President 
Alvaro Uribe has welcomed U.S. aid which aims to dramatically cut the 
amount of coca under cultivation. Profits from the country's cocaine 
industry, controlled largely by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia 
and a handful of right-wing paramilitary groups, fuel the country's civil 
war, now in its 38th year.
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