U.S. ready to fly where missionaries were killed

WASHINGTON — The White House announced July 4 that it is planning to resume interdiction flights in South America in an effort to stop drug trafficking. The flights were suspended in April 2001 after a Peruvian jet fighter shot down a missionary plane carrying pilot Kevin Donaldson and Baptist missionaries Jim and Veronica Bowers April 20.

Veronica “Roni” Bowers and her infant daughter Charity were shot and killed, and Donaldson was severely wounded in both legs during the attack. After the plane crashed into the Amazon River, Donaldson, Jim Bowers and his son Cory were rescued by nearby villagers.

Investigations into the attack determined that the Peruvian pilots were wrongly directed to the plane by members of the CIA during joint U.S.-Peru maneuvers to stop airborne drug shipments. Reports also exonerated Donaldson of any responsibility for the attack.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that President George Bush was contemplating resuming the interdiction flights with new safeguards to make sure that such an incident would not be repeated. If approved, flights could resume as early as fall 2002 with the State Department taking over the operation from the CIA.