On April 20, 2001, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency ordered the Peruvian air force to shoot down a plane suspected of smuggling drugs out of Peru. The plane was not carrying drugs but rather American religious missionaries Jim and Roni Bowers; Roni and 7-month-old daughter Charity died in the shooting.
Pilot Kevin Donaldson, though shot in the leg, managed to land the plane safely; Jim and 6-year-old son Cody were not hurt in the shooting or crash.
After the incident, drug interdiction flights over Peru and neighboring Colombia were suspended while the U.S. government reevaluated its policies surrounding the practice of shooting down suspected drug-smuggling aircraft in foreign countries.
In 2002, the Bush administration settled with Richardson and the surviving members of the Bowers family for $8 million. The following year, administration officials announced that drug interdiction flights would resume over Colombia and Peru.
A CIA inspector general's report made public November 20, 2008, concluded that the CIA attempted to obstruct the investigation of the shooting. The report also suggested that more planes suspected of containing drugs may have been shot down by Peruvian air force jets without being properly identified, and that the CIA may have attempted to cover these incidents up as well.
