Plane Downed, American Held, Sandinistas Say

Sandinista troops shot down a rebel supply airplane in southeastern Nicaragua, killing three crew members and capturing a fourth who identified himself as a U.S. military adviser based in El Salvador, according to a Defense Ministry communique issued late Monday.

The captive said the three dead were Americans and identified himself as Eugen Hafenfuf, 35, the communique said.

U.S. Embassy officials in Managua could not be reached for comment. An embassy spokesman in El Salvador, Pendleton Agnew, said officials were aware of the report but would have no comment.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokeswoman said she had no report on the plane incident.

The Nicaraguans did not release the identities of the dead or disclose Hafenfuf’s whereabouts.

If the aircraft, personnel or supplies found in Nicaragua belong to the United States, they apparently would have been operating in violation of U.S. law prohibiting direct involvement in the Nicaraguan guerrilla war.

A Nicaraguan Defense Ministry spokeswoman said the camouflaged twin-engine airplane, believed to be a C-123, was carrying arms, ammunition and other military supplies to U.S.-backed rebels, called contras, who are fighting to oust the leftist Sandinista government.

The registration of the aircraft was not known.

Soviet-Made Missile

The ministry spokeswoman, Capt. Rosa Pasos, said an infantry unit shot down the aircraft with a Soviet-made C2-M anti-aircraft missile at 11:45 a.m. Sunday, about 20 miles north of San Carlos in the province of Rio San Juan.

She said the plane crashed in a remote and rainy area of the province.

The province lies on the Nicaraguan-Costa Rican border, where the contras hope to expand a southern front to battle the Sandinistas.

Pasos said the plane apparently came from Costa Rica.

“The intruding aircraft was hit by our anti-air defense when it tried to carry out a supply mission to the mercenary forces that operate from abroad against our country,” the statement said.

According to the Nicaraguan communique, the airplane was carrying 50,000 rounds of ammunition for Soviet-style AK rifles, an undisclosed number of PG-7 grenades and dozens of AKM rifles, jungle boots and other supplies.

The communique said the suspect “identified himself as Eugen Hafenfuf, of U.S. nationality, 35, military adviser in El Salvador, and he also said that the three dead are of U.S. nationality.”

About 55 U.S. military trainers are based in El Salvador, and dozens more rotate through the country on a temporary basis to help the Salvadoran military fight a leftist insurgency there.

The contras reportedly have received supply shipments through El Salvador for years. Most recently, a U.S.-Cuban immigrant captured in Nicaragua last June told reporters that he was trained at a Salvadoran military air base before heading for Costa Rica, where he joined contra troops.

Restriction on CIA

The CIA has been barred from giving the contras direct military assistance for the last two years, after the agency mined Nicaraguan waters and sent its hired agents into battle without informing Congress.

Under the terms of $27 million in non-lethal aid given the contras last year, the CIA was allowed to share intelligence information with the guerrillas but still was prohibited from directing or carrying out operations.

Congress has approved a $100-million military aid package to the contras expected to be finalized this month, and the CIA will be given operational control of the U.S. aid.

The Army Special Forces, or Green Berets, are expected to provide much of the contras’ training, but CIA agents and the U.S. military still will be prohibited from operating inside Nicaragua.

The Sandinistas have shot down two other contras airplanes, in 1983 and 1984, and about 10 helicopters, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Pasos said.

Contra spokesmen could not be reached for comment.