WORLD : Opium War Claims U.S. Pilot
GUATEMALA CITY — A State Department plane used to spray opium poppies in northwestern Guatemala slammed into a mountainside, killing the pilot and injuring the co-pilot, both of them Americans, an embassy spokesman said today.
He said the spray program would be suspended until investigators determine the cause of the crash, which may have been engine trouble. He said the pilot radioed air traffic controllers in Guatemala City “minutes, if not seconds” before the crash reporting engine difficulties.
The plane crashed early Sunday, 10 miles east of the capital, on return from a training mission in the opium-infested Cuilco Valley, the spokesman said.
The pilot, David Webster Corey, died instantly in the crash, the embassy said. The co-pilot, James Maxwell, was reported in guarded but stable condition today at a hospital in the United States.
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