Hanoi Says U.S. Fliers May Go When Arrangements Are Made

Three U.S. Navy fliers whose plane crashed near a group of disputed islands off the coast of Vietnam can be released as soon as “arrangements are finished,” a Vietnamese official said here Saturday.

A spokesman from Vietnam’s Embassy in Bangkok also said the two men and a woman rescued Tuesday after their Navy transport ditched at sea near the Spratly Islands are now in northern Vietnam. There was no information on whether the three Americans were injured in the crash.

U.S. Ambassador to Thailand William Brown submitted proposals Saturday to Le Mai, Vietnam’s ambassador to Thailand, for the aviators’ return. The prompt response by Vietnamese Embassy officials was seen as another sign of a thaw in the icy relations that have existed between Washington and Hanoi since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

“This morning, Mr. William Brown came to see my ambassador and made a number of relevant proposals concerning the three American crew members,” said Vietnamese Embassy spokesman Nguyen Van Quan. “My ambassador accepted the ideas and will transfer them to my government.”

The spokesman said Le Mai would inform Brown of Hanoi’s response but indicated that no problems were anticipated.

“I believe it was an accident due to engine failure,” Quan said. “There have been no accusations, only an exchange of information.

“Once the arrangements are finished the fliers can go home,” he said.

Quan said the three fliers are Lt. Richard K. Maurer, 30, of Harveys Lake, Pa.; Lt. (j.g.) Elizabeth Steinnecker, 29, of Tampa, Fla.; and Petty Officer 1st Class Michael R. Neel, 34, of Albuquerque, N.M.

A Navy spokesman said the crew was forced to ditch their twin-engine CT-39E on Tuesday afternoon in the South China Sea during a flight from Singapore to Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines when their navigational instruments failed and the plane ran out of fuel.