REPORT ON MISSIONARY PLANE IN PERU

WASHINGTON -- More than three months after an American missionary plane was
mistakenly shot down over Peru, investigators are saying what went wrong.
What they aren't saying is what should be done about it.

A joint U.S.-Peruvian report due Thursday was expected to conclude that
procedural errors and miscommunications led to the April 20 downing that
killed an American missionary and her infant daughter.

Crew members aboard a CIA-operated surveillance plane mistakenly identified
the missionaries' Cessna as a possible drug flight and were unable to stop
a Peruvian jet from shooting it down after they realized it was probably
innocent.

The United States has suspended drug surveillance flights since the
downing. The question of resuming them has prompted debates about whether
their value in deterring traffickers offsets the risk that innocent planes
could be targeted again.

The joint investigation, led by Assistant Secretary of State Rand Beers,
was limited to determining facts surrounding the downing and did not
directly assign blame.

The investigators also did not recommend policy changes to prevent similar
incidents or suggest whether the United States should resume providing drug
surveillance information to Peru and Colombia that could result in other
planes being fired at.

Those issues will be addressed in a separate report being prepared by
Morris Busby, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia.

Opponents of the shoot-down policy argue that firing at a civilian plane,
even one with narcotics traffickers aboard, is immoral and violates
international law. They say no safeguards would assure that innocent planes
aren't hit.

"We oppose the shoot-down policy because it's ludicrous to think there is a
failsafe system," said Pete West, senior vice president of the 6,500 member
National Business Aviation Association.

Advocates of the shoot-down policy credit it with a sharp drop in coca
production in Peru. The country had been the world's leading producer of
coca, with traffickers flying it into neighboring Colombia for processing
into cocaine. Since the shoot-down policy began in the early 1990s, much of
the coca production has left Peru and moved into Colombia.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., said he believes the policy should be changed to
allow shoot-downs only when there is no possibility that the target is
innocent. If there is even a slight doubt, the plane should not be fired
on, he said.

"When you shoot down a plane, it is probably certain death, and if
occasionally one gets away because your checklist isn't quite working out
right, that's no big deal," he said.

Fears that innocent planes could be shot down prompted the United States to
temporarily suspend sharing drug surveillance data with Peru and Colombia
in 1994. Cooperation did not resume until Congress granted immunity to
Americans and worked out safeguards to prevent mistakes.

Safeguards included requirements that chase planes try to contact suspect
planes by radio, tip their wings as a warning and fire warning shots.

The investigators looking into the April 20 shooting have found that U.S.
and Peruvian officials in recent years have failed to follow those
procedures closely, officials have told The Associated Press.

"Familiarity, routine leads to sloppiness, and I think this had to be
anticipated, and it's now time to change the policy," said Rep. William
Delahunt, D-Mass., who opposes providing data that could lead to shoot-downs.

Killed in the April incident were American missionary Veronica Bowers and
her 7-month-old daughter Charity. Her husband, Jim Bowers, and their
6-year-old son, Cory, survived unharmed. Pilot Kevin Donaldson suffered
serious bullet wounds to his legs.