TEEN WORKING TO GET HOSTAGE FATHER FREED

Pilot Dad Was Captured By Colombian Rebels

"Keith Stansell, 44, was flying anti-drug operations for a U.S.
Company in 2003 when his plane crashed. He and two other Americans
sere taken hostage."

SARASOTA - While most 15-year-olds are working toward getting their
driver's licenses, Kyle Stansell is working toward getting his father
released from Colombian rebels.

Kyle and his grandparents recently took a trip to Venezuela to meet
President Hugo Chavez and learn what he could do about his father's situation.

"There was a gold ceiling and marble floors," Kyle told the Sarasota
Herald-Tribune. "He gave me a hug and through a translator told me
that my dad would be proud."

Keith Stansell, 44, was flying anti-drug operations for a U.S.
company in 2003 when his plane crashed. He and two other Americans
were taken hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,
known by the Spanish acronym FARC.

Since his father was taken captive, Kyle has moved from Georgia to
Indiana to Sarasota, where his father's parents also live.

Kyle and his sister Lauren, 19, learned about their father's plane
crash the night before Valentine's Day in 2003.

"We didn't know for a day or two they had been taken hostage," Lauren
said. "I thought he was dead."

Five months later, the rebels allowed a Colombian journalist to
interview and videotape the hostages, confirming that Stansell was alive.

"I wanted to hug the screen," Lauren said.

On the video, Stansell told the children he loved them and reported
that two of his co-workers had been shot immediately after the plane crash.

After the videotape in 2003, the Stansells appeared on "60 Minutes"
and other news programs. The siblings, however, are concerned that
people in the United States will forget about their father and other hostages.

"It's big news in South America," Lauren said. "But here there are
spurts for a week and then the momentum is gone."

The Stansells have met in Washington with State Department officials
and recently heard from President Bush's hostage adviser. Kyle,
however, said his trip to Venezuela and Colombia, where he met with
Chavez and other government officials, was the most promising
development in years.

Chavez has been negotiating with FARC, and two Colombian politicians
have been on the verge of being released since New Year's Eve.

There has been no word on Stansell and the other Americans, however.