U.S. to send team to probe missionary plane shooting

Veronica Bowers and infant daughter, Charity, died in the attack. Jim Bowers and son, Cory, escaped unhurt

In this story: 'Nobody shooting down any planes' 'Haunt me for a long time' Conflicting accounts 'Still are trusting in God' RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration is assembling an inter-agency team to conduct a joint investigation with the Peruvian government into the shooting down of a missionary plane, senior State Department officials told CNN on Monday.

A U.S. woman and her baby were killed Friday when a Peruvian official aboard a U.S. Defense Department-owed drug surveillance aircraft believed the missionary plane to be a drug trafficking aircraft and gave the order to a Peruvian Air Force pilot to shoot it down.

Officials from the U.S. State Department, CIA, Pentagon, Coast Guard and Customs -- all agencies involved in the counter-narcotics surveillance program in Latin America -- will be part of the U.S. investigative team, one official said.

RESOURCES Donaldson's flight plan, obtained from North American Float Plane Service     AUDIO Father of pilot Kevin Donaldson described what happened 392K/35 sec. AIFF or WAV sound     MESSAGE BOARD Share your thoughts on the war on drugs     ALSO State Dept.: U.S. gave Peru missionary plane's location

The team will "sit down with the Peruvians and go over this thing from beginning to end," the official said. "We need to find out exactly who did what and when … There are a whole lot of questions that need to be answered."

The official said the questions range from whether the pilot's flight plan, obtained by CNN, was filed with the appropriate parties before the flight, and whether the Peruvian Air Force attempted to communicate with the pilot, either by radio or by tipping the wings of the Peruvian plane, before firing.

'Nobody shooting down any planes'

State Department Richard Boucher said Monday that preliminary reports indicated the CIA contractors aboard U.S. surveillance plane attempted to "hold the Peruvians back from taking action" against the missionary plane. "Our folks did raise questions."

In addition to suspending its counter-narcotics surveillance flights with Peru, one senior official told CNN that the practice of using force in order to make suspicious plane land have "temporarily been stood down" in the region.

"We are not stopping all air activity," this official explained. "But nobody is shooting down any planes right now."

The United States has operated a surveillance program with Peru since 1994, although the program was briefly suspended in 1997, apparently because of another incident involving a mistaken identification, CNN's David Ensor reported.

No other details were known, and the flights were resumed after Congress passed a law absolving American crews from any responsibility if the Peruvians make a mistake.

'Haunt me for a long time'

The pilot of the missionary plane was shot in both legs and suffered further injuries to them when the single-engine Cessna 185 crashed in the Amazon River.

Kevin Donaldson is carried by medical workers in Iquitos, Peru, on Saturday

"It was something that will haunt me for a long time," said Kevin Donaldson, 42, of the incident that left two of his passengers dead.

Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, was killed along with her 7-month-old daughter, Charity. Her husband, Jim Bowers, 38, their son, Cory, 7, and Donaldson returned to the United States over the weekend.

Donaldson spoke by phone with reporters from his hospital room at the Reading Hospital and Medical Center, where he underwent surgery to his legs Sunday night. He was listed in fair condition.

The bones in his right calf were shattered, and doctors said it will be months before he can hold his weight again.

"I'm determined to walk again," said Donaldson, who has been a missionary in Peru since 1983.

Conflicting accounts

A U.S. official said Monday that "established procedures in conducting air interdiction operations may not have been fully or properly adhered to" by some Peruvian military officers.

The Peruvian Air Force, however, denied that it had deviated from the standard rules of engagement.

"The only thing I can tell you is that the air force followed the procedures," said air force spokesman Cmdr. Robert Roca. "It regrets this lamentable accident in which two people died."

The Peruvian Air Force said the pilot of the Cessna failed to file a flight plan -- leading to the suspicion of a drug flight -- and entered Peruvian air space from Brazil. The air force also said Donaldson did not respond to attempts at radio communication from the military plane.

But the North American Float Plane Service provided CNN with a copy of a flight plan dated April 19 that details Donaldson's scheduled round-trip itinerary between Iquitos and Islandia, Peru.

And the president of the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, the mission organization that employed the Bowers couple and Donaldson, said the pilot had followed "standard operating procedure" and was talking with an airport tower when the shooting began.

"He was in contact with Iquitos," said Michael Loftis, president of the association, referring to the Peruvian airport where the plane was headed Friday. "They were discussing his landing slot, according to his previously filed flight plan, when these air force planes came around. They circled the plane once and then began firing."

U.S. officials have emphasized that they were not in the chain of command and could not stop the shooting by the Peruvian military.

Donaldson said he saw the Peruvian military plane only when it pulled up alongside him. He said he never noticed the surveillance plane that had first spotted his own aircraft.

"I'd rather not go into all those details at this point," he said.

'Still are trusting in God'

In a statement posted on the Baptist association's Web site, Jim Bowers thanked people for their prayers and support.

"Roni and Charity were tragically killed, and we are suffering for that loss," he said. "I'm sure we will feel the loss more as time goes by. In spite of that, we still are trusting in God."

Bowers originally is from Muskegon, Michigan, and wife, Roni, was from Pace, Florida. The couple had been in Peru for eight years, working on a riverboat, traveling the Amazon and its tributaries, ministering in villages and working in medical clinics and literacy programs.

Donaldson credited God for landing the plane safely. He said it could have been worse because he couldn't operate the plane's right rudder because of his leg injuries.

"It was the Lord obviously who landed that aircraft because I didn't have the abilities," he said.

CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor, Senior White House Correspondent John King and State Department Producer Elise Labott contributed to this report.

Bush calls missionary plane incident 'terrible tragedy'
April 22, 2001
Plane shoot down: Drug intercept flights suspended in Peru
April 21, 2001
Peru air force downs U.S. missionary plane
April 21, 2001
Two Americans killed when private plane shot down in Peru
April 20, 2001

Peruvian Embassy in Washington, DC
American Embassy in Lima, Peru

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