Victims of Peru Accident Land Home
April 24 -- Amid conflicting accounts of the downing of a U.S. missionary plane over Peru, the bodies of an American missionary and her 7-month-old daughter arrived in the United States today.
The bodies of American missionary Veronica "Roni" Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter Charity arrived in Houston from Lima, Peru, after the Cessna 185 they were flying in over the Amazon River was shot down by a Peruvian military plane Friday.
The victims' bodies are to be flown to Michigan later today for funeral services scheduled for later in the week.
The bodies arrived as a U.S. Senate intelligence committee prepares to meet this afternoon to sort out the facts behind the shooting down of the missionary plane by a Peruvian A-37 amid sharply conflicting reports from both sides.
U.S officials have suggested the crew of a CIA-operated surveillance aircraft tracking the missionary plane repeatedly asked Peruvian military officials to slow down the A-37's actions against the missionary aircraft, but the Peruvians cut corners in the established procedures and rushed with their shootdown orders.
While expressing regret for the loss of lives, the Peruvian air force has denied U.S. suggestions that it failed to follow established procedures.
‘The Rudder Was There, But My Foot Was Not’
Questions about whether the two sides followed protocol came as the pilot, Kevin Donaldson, 42, spoke for the first time of the harrowing experience over Peruvian skies.
Speaking from the Reading Hospital and Medical Center in West Reading, Pa., where he was treated for a shattered leg, Donaldson told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America today he was simply glad to be alive.
"It was scary. It was something that will haunt me for a long time," he said. "I'm glad to be alive. But I'm also deeply hurting for the loss of my friend and colleague."
U.S. officials said Bowers was killed by a single bullet that passed through her body and entered the skull of her infant daughter, who was sitting on her lap, killing both instantly.
