NATION : Drug Patrollers Die in Air Crash

MIAMI — A Coast Guard radar plane returning from a patrol for drug smugglers caught fire and crashed early today near a U.S. naval station in Puerto Rico, killing all four men aboard.

They were the first deaths for the Coast Guard since it began drug-smuggling interdiction work in the 1970s.

The E-2C Hawkeye, a twin-engine turboprop radar aircraft, crashed about 500 yards from the runway at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station at 12:21 a.m., said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Karonis, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami. The naval station is in a remote area on the east coast of Puerto Rico.

The crew was coming in for a landing after completing its patrol and reported to military air traffic controllers that there was a fire aboard the aircraft, Karonis said. The crew also reported hydraulic problems.