Peruvian air force shoots down plane believed smuggling drugs
     LIMA (August 5, 1997 6:27 pm EDT) - Peruvian Air Force fighters
 shot down a twin-engine plane over the country's northeast jungle
 region where cocaine traffickers are known to operate, an air force
 statement said Tuesday.
     The small aircraft, which had no visible registration number,
 was intercepted Monday over the town of Puerto Rico-Rio Ene, 250
 miles east of Lima, the statement said. It was not immediately known
 how many people were aboard the downed plane.
     Police said the plane was apparently linked to that region's
 drug trafficking and that it may have flown into Peruvian air space
 to pick up a shipment.
     The plane's crew ignored radio and visual warnings sent by the
 fighter pilots, and carried out "evasive maneuvers to try to avoid
 capture," the statement said.
     The fighters then opened fire, downed the plane and indicated
 to police where the aircraft had gone down.
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        U.S. military plays major role in Guam rescue effort
     WASHINGTON (August 5, 1997 6:57 p.m. EDT) - The Korean Air jumbo
 jet was still smoldering when Navy Seabees began moving in backhoes
 to crack it open and try to rescue anyone who might still be alive.
     Earlier, two Navy CH-46 "Sea Knight" helicopters had been able
 to rescue 30 survivors from the crash site, said Capt. Mary
 Humphreys-Sprague, commander of the Naval task force organizing
 the military relief effort on the islands.
     Not giving up, "we're going to try to break open the aircraft
 with backhoes," said Humphreys-Sprague.
     The crash site is in a "dense jungle area, inaccessible by
 road," she said, and the Navy equipment had problems moving through
 the area.
     The helicopter pilots began their mission wearing night-vision
 goggles because of the lack of light, she said.
     "They are fine. They are used to this," Humphreys-Sprague said.
 The pilots are trained to do "vertical replenishments" at sea, so
 they are able to lift loads under extremely difficult conditions,
 she said.
     Other military forces also were on the scene to cordon off the
 crash site and to help rescue and medical personnel get in.
     She described the crash site as "in a deep valley, a jungle
 valley with high hills on both sides."  On one side is a Navy fuel
 storage site, on the other hill is a military housing unit, she
 said.
     "Volunteers have been pouring in" at the local hospital in an
 effort to assist the military in their rescue work, she said.
    More than 100 U.S. military personnel from the area are involved,
 said Humphreys-Sprague, whose home town is Duluth, Minn.  In Guam,
 she works as the chief of staff for the U.S. naval forces in the
 Marianas Islands, of which Guam is a part.
     The U.S. Defense Department has 6,800 military men and women
 working for it on Guam, a crucial staging and supply base for any
 military operation in the Pacific area. Even when U.S. troops are
 involved as far away as the Middle East, the island is often used
 by the Navy or Air Force as a mid-point stop in their journey.
     Andersen Air Force Base is located on Guam, which is also home
 to the commander for the Naval Forces in the Marianas.
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            I missed this the first time around. Jim
            P-38 wreck kills warbird expert Jeff Ethell
     TILLAMOOK, Oregon - Veteran warbird expert and pilot Jeffrey
 Ethell was killed here June 6 in a crash of a P-38 Lightning, the
 twin-boomed World War II fighter.
     Ethell had come to the Tillamook Naval Air Station Museum to
 host a reunion for Oregon P-38 pilots. As part of the ceremony,
 Ethell was to dedicate one of the museum's two P-38s to his father,
 Ervin C. Ethell, a former P-38 pilot. The aircraft's nose art had
 recently been repainted to match that of his father's aircraft, and
 the elder Ethell had accompanied him to Oregon for the event.
   More information about Ethell and his legacy is available on-line
 at ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jethell.
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