TAPES SHOW U.S. CREW TRIED TO STOP PERU JET

Missionary Plane Pilot: 'They Are Killing Us!'

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. crew of a surveillance aircraft overheard the pilot
of a small plane carrying a missionary family communicate with the tower at
a Peruvian airport, and the Americans tried to warn a Peruvian air force
fighter before the jet attacked, tape recordings of the incident reveal,
according to U.S. officials who have reviewed them.

But the Peruvian jet almost immediately opened fire, and the pilot of the
small Cessna can be heard on the tape saying, "They are killing us!"
according to an official who has heard the tapes.

The American pilot and co-pilot of the surveillance plane then shouted to a
Peruvian air force officer on board, who was acting as their liaison with
the Peruvian fighter, to order a cease-fire.

At that point, one member of the American crew can be heard shouting, "Tell
him to terminate, tell him to terminate!" the official said.

The Peruvian officer on board the American plane then told the Peruvian
fighter plane: "No more. No more."

In Washington, senior American officials are still reviewing the video and
audio tapes from Friday's incident over Peru, in which an American woman
and her baby daughter were killed.

The pilot of the missionary plane was wounded, but he was able to land, and
two other passengers -- the dead woman's husband and son -- also survived.

The Peruvian fighter and the U.S. surveillance plane were part of a joint
drug-interdiction operation to stop drug-running flights in the region.

U.S. drug interdiction flights have been suspended over Peru and Colombia,
according to the State Department.

Since the downing of the aircraft, U.S. officials have said that the
Peruvian jet opened fire on the missionary plane without carefully
following established procedures.

Now, officials say the tapes of the incident, which have not yet been
publicly released by the U.S. government, show that CIA contract personnel
repeatedly raised questions with the Peruvians about their procedures
before the Peruvian pilot opened fire. They then intervened to try to stop
the firing almost as soon as it began.

Still, officials caution that some of the facts surrounding the incident
must be clarified, including any attempt to reconcile the tapes with other
reports that the survivors were strafed after they landed.

An investigation of the incident is expected, although it is still not
clear who will lead that inquiry.

But in seeking to piece together the sequence of events that led to the
downing of the plane, U.S. officials revealed that the tapes show the
Peruvians rushed their actions so quickly that the American crew on the
surveillance plane had only a few minutes to intervene.

The tapes show that the American crew repeatedly asked questions of the
Peruvians and expressed strong reservations about their actions. At one
point, they asked the Peruvian officer on board their plane whether he was
certain that the small plane was a drug-trafficking aircraft. The Peruvian
responded that he was not certain.

A bilingual Peruvian lieutenant colonel was on board the U.S. plane, acting
as a liaison with the Peruvian air force.