Salvadorans Find Wreckage of 2nd Rebel Plane

The Salvadoran military has discovered the wreckage of a second plane that was apparently ferrying sophisticated weapons to leftist guerrillas, but only after the cargo reached rebel hands, witnesses said.

Another plane loaded with weapons, which crashed short of its destination Saturday, has been linked to a Nicaraguan government bank. However, a captain in the Nicaraguan air force, whom the Salvadoran government had identified as the pilot killed in the crash, appeared Tuesday at a press conference in Managua.

The twin-engine aircraft found in this remote hamlet in La Paz province landed in a field at dawn Saturday, witnesses said. Immediately, a column of waiting guerrillas emerged from nearby brush and within an hour had unloaded the plane’s cargo and carted it away, according to eight peasant farmers who live in the area.

The peasants, interviewed by two reporters Tuesday, described the items removed from the plane as 10 to 15 long “tubes.”

Salvadoran military officials say they believe the weapons were SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles. The other plane, a Cessna 310, crashed Saturday with 24 Soviet-made SAM-7 missiles aboard, and Salvadoran and U.S. officials said the shipment was being flown to the rebels from Nicaragua.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has denied that the missiles were sent by his government. Nevertheless, the incident provoked El Salvador to break diplomatic relations with Nicaragua.

The discovery of the plane in El Despoblado is especially significant because it is the first sign that rebels have actually received anti-aircraft missiles.

According to the peasants here in the hamlet, about 50 miles southeast of the capital, the plane circled three or four times overhead last Saturday, then landed in a field.

When the aircraft apparently suffered mechanical failure and could not take off again, the guerrillas set it afire. But only the body of the fuselage burned, leaving the wings, engines and tail intact.

Later Saturday, the local residents said, five guerrillas returned to the site and ordered about 30 farmers to dig large pits to bury the remaining pieces of the plane.

As the civilians dug, Salvadoran air force helicopters appeared and began firing rockets at the group, the witnesses said.

In Managua, the Cessna 310 that crashed loaded with weapons was traced to the Nicaraguan government’s National Development Bank, which requisitioned the aircraft three months ago from an air-taxi company.

When the Cessna crashed in a soybean field in San Miguel province in eastern El Salvador, four men aboard died. The Salvadoran Foreign Ministry said it had identified the pilot as a captain of the Sandinista air force, Mauricio Quiroz of Leon, Nicaragua.

However, Quiroz appeared at a press conference Tuesday in Managua to prove to reporters that he is alive and to affirm that he does not fly weapons to Salvadoran guerrillas. Journalists verified that the name and photograph on his passport matched.