RUMORS ABOUND CRASHED DRUG PLANE LOOTED

Authorities are unable to confirm that the cargo was stolen.

Detroit-Residents of the working-class neighborhood where the small plane
crashed, killing the pilot,have heard the rumors: Some Neighbors and
passers-by snatched bags of marijuana from the wreckage.

Authorities went door to door hours after Sunday's crash looking for
witnesses to the looting, but they still would not confirm the reports
Monday.

Gloria Johnson said she heard a boom, then saw the plane hit a tree and go
down in a ball field across the street next o a junior high school.

She said there were "big bundles of drugs and money all around the plane,"
and that the bundles of marijuana "looked like two big suitcases."

Johnson said she saw people flee with some of the bundles.

"A couple of guys came to help, then grabbed the bags of drugs and left,"
Johnson said.

Kimberly Terry, 32, who also lives across the street, said she was one of
the first at the scene. She said she ran back home to call 911, and when
she returned, people at the scene all were talking about the looting.

Both women said they saw the pilot alive in the wreckage, while authorities
said they doubted he could have survived the impact of the crash.

Other witnesses, many of whom would not give their names, also said they
saw people take marijuana. No one said they saw anyone take any money.

Robert Mosely, 23, a lifelong resident of the west Detroit neighborhood,
said he arrived too late to see any looting, but added that he understands
the mentality of people who would.

"You see it's money, you see it's marijuana, you get as much as you can as
fast as you can," said Mosely.

Investigators think the pilot began his drug-smuggling flight somewhere in
Mexico and was bound for either the United States or Canada.

Three customs planes began trailing the experimental homemade plane, made
mostly from fiberglass and wood, after a ranger at Big Bend National Park
near El Paso, Texas, reported it was flying low.

The pilot apparently spotted the customs planes in Champaign, Ill., and
headed northeast until he ran out of gas in Detroit.