U.S. MISSIONARIES ON PLANE DOWNED BY PERU

LIMA, Peru, April 20 (AP) - A Peruvian Air Force jet shot down a plane
carrying American missionaries in Peru's Amazon jungle region today, the
American embassy said. The missionary group said a woman and her infant
daughter were killed.

"The Peruvian pilot mistook it for an airplane transporting contraband
drugs," an American Embassy spokesman, Benjamin Ziff, said.

The Rev. E.C. Haskell, a 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.

An American missionary, Roni Bowers, and her 6-month-old daughter, Charity,
were both killed and a veteran missionary pilot, Kevin Donaldson, was
wounded, he said. Mr. Donaldson was able to make an emergency landing in
the Amazon River, Mr. Haskell added.

Also on board and unhurt were Mrs. Bowers' husband, Jim Bowers, and their
son Cory, according to Mr. Haskell, speaking from the group's office in
Harrisburg, Pa. The hometowns of the missionaries weren't immediately
available.

There was no immediate comment from Peru's military.

Mario Justo, an official at the Iquitos airport, said that a single-engine
plane belonging to the missionary group crashed 11:20 a.m. in the Amazon.
Iquitos is 625 miles northeast of Lima.