U.S. Helped Peru Down Small Plane

Church Craft Downed, Mistaken As Drug Flight

The Peruvian air force jet that shot down an aircraft full of American
missionaries it had mistaken for a drug-smuggling flight was guided in for
the attack by a U.S. surveillance plane, U.S. officials confirmed yesterday.

The U.S. Embassy in Lima announced yesterday that drug-interdiction flights
have been suspended, "pending a thorough investigation and review by
Peruvian and U.S. officials of how this tragic incident took place."

A Michigan woman and her 7-month-old daughter were killed during the attack
over the Amazon jungle Friday morning. The incident sparked contradictory
allegations yesterday over whether the missionaries' airplane and the
Peruvian jet had followed proper flight and interception procedures.

The crew aboard the U.S. surveillance plane urged Peruvian authorities to
check out the flight, a Bush administration official who asked not to be
identified said last night.

A second official said the plane was considered suspect because it was
operating without a flight plan in airspace frequented by drug runners.
Peru, which had the responsibility to identify the plane's intentions under
a long-standing agreement, mistakenly decided that it was carrying drugs,
the official said.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Lima said only that an American radar aircraft
was nearby during the incident but declined to comment on its exact role,
saying the issue is under investigation by U.S. and Peruvian authorities.

"A U.S. government tracking aircraft was in the area in support of the
Peruvian intercept mission," the spokesman said. "As part of an agreement .
. . the U.S. provides tracking information on planes suspected of smuggling
illegal drugs in the region to the Peruvian air force.

"U.S. government tracking aircraft used for this purpose are unarmed and do
not participate in any way in the shooting down of suspect planes," the
official said, adding that he did not know the U.S. aircraft's type or base.

But Washington officials briefed on the incident said the U.S. radar plane
had "guided the Peruvian jet by radio" to a "suspect drug runner" that
turned out to be the missionaries' single-engine Cessna 185 pontoon plane.

The officials said the U.S. airplane appeared to have been operated by the
State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau "or
another agency involved in counternarcotics work."

Though the U.S. military is heavily involved in counternarcotics operations
in Latin America, Pentagon officials denied that their planes had anything
to do with the incident.

In Quebec, where he was attending the Summit of the Americas, President
Bush said yesterday he will "wait to see all the facts" before assigning
blame for the deaths.

A U.S. official said the decision to suspend the drug-interdiction program
came after hours of meetings between White House and State Department
aides, including some traveling with Bush.

Peruvian Prime Minister Javier Perez de Cuellar, also in Quebec, approached
Bush during an evening summit session and "expressed his deep regret and
offered to help the families in any way he could," said White House
spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old adopted daughter, Charity,
of Muskegon, Mich., were killed when the plane was shot down. Pilot Kevin
Donaldson of Morgantown, Pa., was seriously wounded in both legs.

Bowers' husband, Jim Bowers, 35, and their 6-year-old son, Cory, were also
aboard the plane but were uninjured. All the adults were members of the
Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, based in Harrisburg, Pa.

The missionaries' plane was en route from the Brazilian-Peruvian border to
Iquitos, Peru, when it was attacked, said the Rev. E.C. Haskell, spokesman
for the church group.

Jim Bowers gave his account of the flight to a Peruvian air force colonel
investigating the incident yesterday. His brother, Phil Bowers, sat in on
the interview.

Phil Bowers, who was not on the flight, said his brother told the colonel
that the Peruvian military made no attempt to communicate over the radio
before two or three jets opened fire on the small plane.

Hundreds of villagers watched as at least one of the air force planes fired
at the disabled Cessna and the survivors as they floated on the Amazon
River, Phil Bowers said. He added that the U.S. "surveillance plane also
saw the whole thing from up high."

A U.S. Embassy official declined to comment on Bowers' statements.

Peru's Amazon is a busy route for airplanes smuggling semi-processed coca
base from Peru's coca-growing areas to cocaine refineries in Colombia. Its
air force shot down about 25 suspected drug planes between 1994 and 1997.

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori last year credited the
shoot-down policy with helping to reduce Peru's coca fields to one-tenth of
their 1995 levels, in effect scaring off potential buyers and causing a
collapse of coca-base prices.