U.S., BOGOTA TO RESUME AERIAL DRUG INTERDICTION

BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct. 2 -- Eighteen months after an American missionary
plane was mistakenly shot down, the United States plans to resume a
campaign to help Colombia track and force down drug flights, officials from
both countries said today.

The program was suspended in April 2001 in Colombia and Peru after a
Peruvian warplane shot down the missionary flight over the Amazon, killing
an American and her infant daughter.

Colombian warplanes will intercept drug flights based on intelligence from
the United States, Gen. Hector Velasco, the air force commander, said today.

Officials expect operations to resume this month.

To help prevent erroneous shoot-downs, Colombian ground and air crews and
pilots are receiving safety training in Oklahoma City, said Brig. Gen.
Galen Jackman of the U.S. Army.

The State Department will be the lead U.S. agency handling the program.

Members of Congress had recommended that the CIA no longer manage it.

U.S. officials have said illicit drug flights from the Andes to the United
States increased following the suspension of the U.S. program.

The American missionary plane was shot down after a CIA surveillance plane
spotted what it considered a suspicious aircraft and called in a Peruvian
jet to intercept it.

The U.S. crew later realized that the flight was innocent, but was unable
to dissuade the Peruvians from firing.