Air Cargo Firm Had Ties to 2 Killed in Nicaragua

An air transport company formerly owned by the CIA acknowledged Wednesday that it had ties with two American pilots killed in Nicaragua when their plane was shot down on an arms-supply mission for anti-Sandinista rebels.

The FBI also reported that it was investigating the company, Southern Air Transport, to determine whether it has violated the U.S. Neutrality Act.

Meanwhile, ownership of the crashed plane--a 1960s-vintage twin-engine craft originally built for the U.S. Air Force--remained shrouded in mystery.

Helicopter Firm Named

According to journalists in Nicaragua, the C-123--a type of plane used extensively during the Vietnam War--bore the identifying tail number N4410F. In Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration said a Fairchild C-123F with that number was last registered to Doan Helicopter Inc., a firm listing its address as a post office box in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Telephone calls to the company and to Harry S. Doan, the individual identified in records as its president, were answered by a tape recording inviting callers to leave a message. Repeated messages went unanswered, however.

According to FAA records, Doan Helicopter purchased the plane on Aug. 16, 1983, from a Jacksonville, Fla., man, Roy Stafford, who had purchased it three weeks earlier from the “U.S. Air Force Museum.” Stafford has an unlisted telephone number and could not be located for comment.

Larry Allen, operations manager of Daytona Beach Aviation Inc., said in a telephone interview that his firm does maintenance on craft owned by Doan Helicopter Inc. “They are a fairly good-sized operation,” Allen said.

Allen said the Doan firm specializes in Jet Ranger helicopters and now has four helicopters advertised for sale. As for cargo planes, Allen said the firm kept none at the Daytona Beach airport. “Not here,” he said. “They might have kept them at some other field.”

Access to Southern Air

William Kress, a spokesman for Southern Air, denied that the company owned or operated the C-123 cargo plane that was downed Sunday. Kress also denied that anyone aboard the craft was employed by Southern Air.

But he said the pilot, William J. Cooper, had been issued a company identification card “to enable him (to have) access to Southern Air’s premises to supervise the maintenance of his aircraft” by the company.

Cooper, the pilot, was killed when the plane was shot down. Sandinista officials on Tuesday showed reporters in Managua, the Nicaraguan capital, a Southern Air Transport employee identification card in Cooper’s name.

Also killed when the plane was shot down were Wallace Blaine Sawyer Jr., the co-pilot, and a man of Latin heritage who still has not been identified. Kress said Sawyer had worked for Southern Air in 1985 but was no longer an employee.

Prisoner Exchange Possible

Another American, Eugene Hasenfus, parachuted from the plane and was captured by the Sandinistas.

A high official of the anti-Sandinista rebels, known as contras, said Wednesday that a prisoner exchange might be attempted to free Hasenfus.

“We hope there may be an exchange,” said Leonardo Somarriba. “We have prisoners.”

Somarriba is secretary general of the United Nicaraguan Opposition (UNO), the contra umbrella organization. UNO’s new headquarters sit across the street from Southern Air’s headquarters on the back side of Miami International Airport.

Somarriba said the location is only a coincidence.

“I’ve never met anyone from Southern Air,” he told reporters.

He said that if the company had ever transported anything for the rebels, it would have been under contract with some organization donating supplies.

Denies Ties to CIA

Somarriba refused to say what organization had arranged Sunday’s supply mission.

“This is something we prefer to keep confidential,” he said. “What I can assure you is that they were not in any way connected with the American government.”

Asked if the CIA was involved, he said “absolutely not.”

Current legislation prohibits the CIA from supplying or advising the anti-Sandinista rebels, until a bill providing $100 million in aid becomes law. The bill is pending in Congress.

Southern Air, owned by the CIA from 1960 to 1973, was sold to private buyers for a reported $2.1 million but has reportedly maintained at least some ties to the intelligence agency.

Southern Air has said it does not operate any C-123 aircraft, but a C-123, painted in military camouflage, was seen outside the Southern Air building Tuesday and in a nearby hangar Wednesday.

Federal Aviation Administration records show the plane’s registration number, N674JK, is associated with a company called Corporate Air Service. Corporate Air Service operates from the Southern Air building.

FAA officials told the Miami Herald that they received a telex on July 8 signed by Joseph Kappa of Sepulveda, Calif., asking that official ownership of the plane be “reserved” for Corporate Air Service.

While reporters waited outside Southern Air on Wednesday, two FBI agents arrived and spent 45 minutes inside. Miami FBI spokesman Paul Miller said later that the agents “were there to conduct a preliminary inquiry” to determine whether the company had violated the Neutrality Act, which prohibits the use of U.S. territory for aiding insurgent movements in countries that maintain diplomatic relations with the United States.

Southern Air was used by the CIA in the 1960s and 1970s for operations in East Asia and Latin America.

According to some reports published since the company was sold in 1973, the buyers were “former agency contacts” and the airline continued to carry out CIA missions.

Kress, the Southern Air spokesman, denied Wednesday that the company has any CIA links.