Exclusive: Missionary Whose Wife Was Killed

May 23 -- The American missionary whose wife and baby daughter were killed when their plane was shot down over the Amazon says there was no warning before a Peruvian fighter jet opened fire.

Jim Bowers and his wife Veronica, known as Roni, were traveling with their two children, 6-year-old Cory and 7-month-old Charity, when they first spotted the Peruvian jet on April 20. They were on their way to get a visa for Charity, whom they had recently adopted.

"I reached back and told Roni to wake Cory up because he'd want to see it," Bowers told ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer in his first interview since the tragedy.

Peruvian officials have said its air force mistook the missionary family's plane for drug smugglers, and that the Peruvian plane shot down the small craft only after warnings. But Bowers, 38, told PrimeTime Thursday there were no warning shots.

"This plane had to be a quarter-mile behind us and I don't care how loud the gun is, we're not going to know that he's shooting at us unless they had tracers," he said. He said a Peruvian air force commander he spoke to after the shootdown "told me there were no tracers."

Bowers also said the Peruvian plane never tipped its wings, the signal for another plane to land.

Bullets, Flames and the Amazon River

About an hour into their flight, Bowers recalls, there was a loud jolt.

"It's just like popcorn," he said. "There was just like a loud popping sound and things flying … It's hard to remember exactly the sequence of events or how long it took."

The veteran pilot at the controls, Kevin Donaldson, fought desperately to hold their smoking plane on course, but was forced to crash-land on the Amazon River.

"When we hit, we hit very hard, with my back turned and no seat belt on," Bowers said.

Donaldson, his legs shattered by bullets, fought his way through the pirhana-infested river and grabbed a pontoon for Cory to cling to.

Bowers, although injured, was holding onto Roni and Charity.