DOWNING OF MISSIONARY PLANE PROBED

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. and Peruvian investigators are exploring
whether a series of errors, rather than a single blunder, led to the
mistaken downing of an American missionaries' plane over Peru, one of
the investigators says.

The investigator also hinted at evidence the Peruvian military jet
likely fired a required warning shot before downing the single-engine
Cessna it suspected was carrying drugs.

One of the missionaries and her child were killed in the April 20
incident.

" There were several contributing factors that tragically conspired"
leading up to the fatal attack, said the investigator.

Among the issues being explored are:

Whether there was a mix-up over radio frequencies used by the military
and the missionaries' pilot.

Whether flight plans were filed properly.

Whether language translation problems aboard a CIA surveillance plane
may have contributed to the tragedy.

And investigators are trying to determine if warning shots were fired,
why the pilot of the missionaries' aircraft did not respond. The
missionaries' group has said no warning shots were fired.

The investigator hinted that some evidence suggests warning shots were
fired.

" It does appear that the Peruvians did follow their procedures and
warning shots are an integral part of that, " he said Wednesday,
speaking on condition of anonymity. He declined to elaborate.

The missionaries' plane was being tracked by observers in a CIA
surveillance plane, who initially identified it as a possible drug
flight. U.S. officials have said that the CIA crew later realized it
was likely an innocent flight, but couldn' t stop the shooting.

The investigator said that a language problem aboard the surveillance
plane " played a role" but that it has not been determined whether "
it was a critical contributing factor."

The three Americans on the surveillance plane spoke little Spanish,
though the CIA has said the Peruvian liaison officer aboard was
proficient in English. Investigators want to know if poor
communications between the Americans and the Peruvian, who was in
contact with the military, might have played a part in the failure to
properly and promptly identify the missionaries' plane.

The U.S. part of the team, led by Assistant Secretary of State Rand
Beers, returned Saturday from a weeklong trip to Peru and is
continuing its investigation. U.S. members of the team also include
representatives from the military, CIA and the multiagency U.S.
interdiction coordinator' s office.

Investigators plan to interview the pilot of the downed aircraft,
Kevin Donaldson, and another survivor, missionary Jim Bowers. His
wife, Veronica, " Roni" Bowers, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity,
were killed.

The investigation is diplomatically sensitive because it could affect
future drug interdiction policies of the two countries. Both U.S. and
Peruvian officials have refused to discuss the shooting publicly.

The drug interdiction flights are suspended pending the outcome of the
investigation.

Peru began shooting down suspected drug planes in the early 1990s to
stop frequent flights carrying semi-processed cocaine to neighboring
Colombia. The United States temporarily suspended sharing information
about drug flights with Peru in 1994 until procedures could be set to
prevent innocent planes from being fired upon.

Peruvian officials indicated those procedures were followed on April
20, the investigator said.

He said the Peruvian military tried to communicate with the missionary
plane using civilian frequencies, but got no response. A key question
still to be resolved is whether the missionary plane would have been
using any of those frequencies at the time.

Another key issue concerns the flight plan. Peruvian officials said
none had been filed. The missionaries' organization, New Cumberland,
Pa.-based Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, contends a
flight plan had been filed and has posted a copy on its Web site.

Peru' s air force has reported shooting down 38 suspected drug planes
since 1990. The policy is credited with the sharp drop in Peru' s
production of coca, the raw material of cocaine.

Critics of the policy, including some U.S. lawmakers, note that most
of that coca production simply shifted into Colombia and question
whether shooting at unarmed planes is legal under international law or
moral.

On Wednesday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer repeated the
administration' s view that drugs need to be fought both abroad and at
home. " The problem is drugs grown in other nations ... enter the
marketplace of America, " he said.