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CNN Live At Daybreak

Startling View of Missionary Plane Downing in Peru

Aired August 03, 2001 - 07:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We have a startling view into the chaos leading up to a Peruvian Air Force pilot shooting down a missionary plane last April.

CNN's Andrea Koppel brings us the videotape that shows the split second decisions and the language barriers that may be responsible for the death of a mother and a child.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's not trying to run, is he?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Minutes before the shoot down of the American missionary plane, seen here in the cross ears of this surveillance video. American pilots tried to prevent it on seven, separate occasions.

PILOT TO U.S. ICO: OK, I understand this is not our call, but this guy is at 4,500 feet; he is not taking any evasive action. I recommend we follow him. I do not recommend phase three at this time.

KOPPEL: Phase three would authorize the Peruvian pilot to shoot down a suspected drug runner's plane. But he American pilots had doubts.

PILOT TO U.S. ICO: Aider, are we sure this guy is a bad guy?

PILOT: I think we're making a mistake but I agree with you.

KOPPEL: Before long, a dramatic exchange, American and Peruvian pilots speaking simultaneously in English and Spanish, neither able to understand or hear the other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in Spanish)

OB-140B PILOT (translated on screen): They're killing me! They're killing us!

PILOT 1 TO ICO: Tell him to terminate.

PILOT 2: No! Don't shoot!

PILOT 1 TO ICO: Tell him to terminate. No mas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No mas! No mas! Tucano, no mas!

KOPPEL: But it was too late, the Peruvian Air Force pilot had already shot down the plane. American pilot Kevin Donaldson crash landed the single-engine Cessna in the water where it eventually turned over and sank. An American missionary and her 7-month-old daughter were killed.

(on camera): A joint U.S.-Peruvian report, released Thursday, concludes that last April's tragic shoot-down was caused by lax procedures in the U.S.-Peruvian aerial drug interdiction program. That was compounded by language problems and communications overload.

(voice-over): State Department officials say if the Peruvian Air Force had followed established safeguards instead of rushing through them, the shoot-down never would have happened.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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