Pilot of Missionary Plane Relives Tragedy

In a dramatic story of tragedy and dedication, Kevin Donaldson, the pilot of the American missionary plane that was shot down over the Amazon River by a Peruvian military jet, relives the moments before the tragedy for ABCNEWS' Good Morning America today.

An American missionary and her 7-month-old daughter were killed in Peru last Friday when a Peruvian military plane — operating with information provided by a U.S. surveillance plane operated by a CIA crew — shot down the small civilian plane mistaking it for a plane on a drug run.

Donaldson, fellow-missionary Jim Bowers and his son Cory escaped the plane unharmed. Bowers' wife Veronica and his infant daughter Charity were killed by a single bullet. He spoke to Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer from his hospital bed in Reading, Penn.

D.S.: Mr. Donaldson, I know you've been through surgery. How are you feeling this morning?

K.D.: Pretty well. Pretty well. I had a reasonable amount of rest.

D.S. : And what are the doctors saying about your legs, particularly your right leg which was so shattered?

K.D.: It can be repaired. They're doing a good job. It's a long road ahead. it will be about a year, they're estimating, for total recovery.

D.S.: You were in communication with the tower, because one of the questions has been was there radio communication, were you available for radio communication.

K.D.: Yes, I was. I had told them my altitude, my location, my estimated time, my departure point, everything that is standard procedure for reporting to the tower. That's the only frequency that I work on. That's who I was talking to.

D.S.: And you had filed a full flight plan?

K.D.: I had filed a flight plan the day before that was an out and return flight plan because there's nowhere to file a flight plan at the other end so I had to file with a request for overnight. I filed that the day before.

D.S.: Was there any activity by the Peruvian plane approaching you? Did it tilt its wings, signal in any way? Did the pilot signal in any way what he wanted you to do?

K.D.: Well, it would have been too far away for me to have seen any hand motions, anything by the pilot. It was swooping, as I say, from one side under me up to the other side. If it was signals of any sort, it was nothing that I understood as a signal. I just continued steadily on my route, and I asked the tower why the aircraft was there.