Angola Frees U.S. Pilot at Elaborate Ceremony

Although he is neither an American secret agent nor a political hostage, Joseph F. Longo was released Sunday from 10 weeks’ detention in Angola with all the trappings of a long-held and famous prisoner being freed.

Four U.S. congressmen flew into Luanda aboard a U.S. Air Force plane; the Angolan National Assembly held a special session to mark his release; the diplomatic corps was called in on a Sunday afternoon to witness the ceremony, and the event was recorded by more than 40 foreign journalists.

Angolan officials made speeches denouncing Reagan Administration policies in southern Africa and calling on Washington to use its influence to bring peace to the region. The congressmen, all Democrats, responded with pledges to work for a new U.S. policy here. But who is Joseph F. Longo, and why all the fuss?

A 33-year-old pilot from Greensburg, Pa., Longo strayed into Angolan airspace April 20 while ferrying a small plane to South Africa and was forced to land in southern Angola. He had overflown a military operation zone, officials said, and he was held on suspicion of espionage while Angolan authorities verified his story.

His parents and fiancee badgered the State Department in Washington to secure his release and enlisted the support of their congressman, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), but Longo’s plight attracted little public attention.

Extraordinary Case

“This sort of thing happens from time to time all over the world, and generally they are sorted out without too much bother,” a European ambassador remarked as he watched the special “ceremony of release” at Luanda’s Palace of Congresses.

“Normally, an errant pilot is scolded, perhaps fined, but usually sent on his way with an admonition to improve his navigation. Sometimes, he might be jailed, as an American was here for two years in 1981, but this would be an exceptional case. So, the Longo affair is truly, truly extraordinary.”

Longo’s predicament became an issue in the troubled relations between Angola and the United States, and the Marxist government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos seized upon his release, regarded by most diplomats as inevitable, as a chance to demonstrate Angola’s desire to resolve the more difficult problems between the two countries.

By freeing Longo, Angola was “showing once again the highest ascent of humanitarianism and its good will in dealing with difficult problems,” Andre Domingo, a member of the National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee, told the American congressmen.

Angola hopes, Domingo continued, that the step will improve the climate for talks on other issues with senior U.S. officials in Luanda next month, when progress could significantly affect the alignment of forces in southern Africa.

These issues include the establishment of diplomatic relations between Washington and Luanda, U.S. political and military support for the rightist National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the presence of an estimated 37,000 Cuban troops and advisers here and the renewal of talks on independence for neighboring Namibia, which is administered by South Africa.

Rep. Howard Wolpe (D-Mich.), chairman of a House subcommittee on Africa and head of the congressional delegation that traveled here, welcomed Longo’s release as “an expression of the Angolan government’s intention of moving forward toward a better, more positive relationship with the United States.” He called it “a very constructive prelude” to scheduled negotiations in mid-July with Chester A. Crocker, assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

Wolpe said the four-member congressional delegation will discuss these and other issues with Angolan officials before returning to Washington today.

Angolans, trying hard to impress the Americans with their sincerity, turned the brief congressional visit into an intense series of meetings, diplomatic receptions, private talks and other official functions that left the jet-lagged congressmen and their aides catching catnaps on hotel sofas.