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CNN Sunday Morning

Missionary Plane Mistakenly Shot Down in Peru

Aired April 22, 2001 - 07:08   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Peru, drug interdiction flights have been temporarily suspended. This follows Friday's downing of a small plane carrying America missionaries. The Peruvian Air Force shot at the plane, killing a woman and her infant daughter. The woman's husband, son and pilot survived the attack.

The Peruvian jet was acting on a tip from a U.S. anti-drug surveillance plane.

Claudia Cisneros has more from Lima, Peru.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLAUDIA CISNEROS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They came to Peru to help the needy. For the missionaries on this Cessna floatplane, the jungle was their home. Thirty-five year old missionary, Veronica Bowers and her seven-month-old daughter, Charity, died when a Peruvian Air Force plane shot at the Cessna.

Statement from the Peruvian Air Force said the missionaries plane failed to respond to international procedures of identification and interception. The pilot, Kevin Donaldson, was shot too but managed to land the plane in the Amazon River.

BOBBI DONALDSON, WIFE OF THE PILOT: The plane had crashed because my husband didn't have use of his left foot to land it and it was all shot up and on fire too and then flipped over and stayed floating but submerging slowly. And so all stayed there in keeping the dead there too.

CISNEROS: Also on the plane, Veronica Bowers' husband and 7- year-old son. They both survived.

The Peruvian Air Force claims the missionaries failed to file a flight plan and the plane flew unnoticed into Peru's airspace. U.S. diplomats say apparently the Peruvian Air Force thought the plane was transporting contraband drugs. U.S. officials confirm an American tracking aircraft was in the area at the time of the incident and provided the Cessna's location to the Peruvian military.

U.S. tracking planes routinely assist Peruvian authorities in the northern jungle region bordering Columbia and Brazil, a common route for cocaine trafficking. Both Peruvian and the U.S. authorities call this a tragic incident and have said they deeply regret the lives lost.

Claudia Cisneros for CNN, Lima, Peru.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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