2 U.S. PILOTS DIE IN COLOMBIA CRASH

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A small airplane crashed into the jungles of
southern Colombia, killing two U.S. pilots who were in the country to help
eradicate drug crops, officials said Tuesday.

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Bogota identified the men as Gary Clyde
Chestnut, 46, of Leesburg, Ala., and Wayne Harley Mulgrew, 46, of Napa, Calif.

Their Thrush plane, used for fumigating illicit drug crops, went down
during a training flight Monday near the town of San Jose de Guaviare,
about 175 miles southwest of the capital Bogota.

Authorities said they didn't know what caused the crash.

``They enter the gallery of heroes who have given so much to the fight
against drug trafficking,'' Colombian police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano
told reporters.

The wreckage was located Tuesday a few miles outside of San Jose de
Guaviare, where rescue teams arrived to evacuate the bodies.

Leesburg and Mulgrew worked for the U.S.-based Dainco company, which helps
train Colombian pilots to fumigate drug crops, police said.

Leftist rebels control much of the dense jungle in the southern state of
Guaviare, but the U.S. Embassy said in a statement that there was no
evidence linking them to the crash.

In the last four years, seven helicopters and four airplanes used to
fumigate illicit coca and poppy crops have crashed or been shot down by
Colombian guerrillas.

Three U.S. civilian pilots have died in the past 14 months while aiding
Colombia in anti-narcotics operations.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski