DOWNED PLANE IS LINKED TO AIR CHARTER'S CHECK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605070049-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: October 30, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/04 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605070049-4
rt'1jI~iC;~1 fCttfLLy ?)
~.
The cargo plane shot down over
Nicaragua earlier this month was
purchased in March with a check
issued by Southern Air Transport
Inc., a Miami-based air charter firm
once secretly owned by the Central
Intelligence Agency, according to a~
source familiar with the transac-
tipn.
Since the downing of the Fair-
child C123K cargo plane on Oct. 5,
Southern Air Transport, a firm the
CIA says it sold in 1973, has said
that it did not own or operate the
aiXCraft. The firm said it had simply
provided maintenance assistance to
that plane and another C123 cargo
plane linked to a secret air supply
operation run by rebels, also called
contras, fighting the Sandinista gov-
ernment of Nicaragua.
William Kress, a Southern Air
Transport spokesman, said yester-
day that the company still stands by
its statement, but he added that, if
the downed plane was purchased
with a Southern Air check, the com-
pany could have been buying it on
behalf of a customer. Kress said he
was not able to reach top company
officials late yesterday afternoon to
verify that the plane was purchased
tivith a Southern Air check.
[lorry Doan, the president of a,.
Daytona Beach, Fla., company that
is.listed as the plane's current own-
er i-r Federal Aviation Administra-
tibn records, said yesterday that he
suld the plane on March 30 but he
declined to publicly identify the pur-
chaser. Doan said he did not have
any contact with William J. Cooper,
the pilot? who was killed when the
plane wqs downed, or. with Corpor-
ate Air Services Inc., a firm tied to
the contra supply operation.
Doan said that the U.S. Customs
Service, which is investigating pos-
sible violations of munitions export
laws in connection with the plane.
has obtained a copy of the canceled
check from his bank account,
WASHINGTON POST
30 October 1986
~ownecl Plane Is Linl~ecl
To Air Charter's Checl~
~Iasenfus Cod Funds From Pennsylt','ania Firm
r1 Customs Service spokesman in
iVliami declined to comment on the
investigation yesterday.
The report that the downed plane
was purchased with a Southern Air
'['ransport check is one of several
new disclosures on the secret re-
supplyoperation:
^ r1 Pennsylvania firm named Cor-
porate Air Services. made at least
three wire transfers of about
68,000 from a bank near Lancaster,
Pa., into the Wisconsin bank ac-
count of E{asenfus, the surviving
crew member of the downed plane
who was captured by the Sandinista
government, a member of Hasen-
fus' legal team confirmed yester-
day.
[t is riot known whether this is
the same Corporate Air Services
that Cooper told others he worked
for.
"Che firm that transferred the
money to Hasenfus was incorporat-
ed in Pennsylvania in 1974, accord-
ing to state records. The Philadel-
phia Inquirer reported yesterday
that the president of Corporate Air
Services is Edward T. de Garay, a
pilot and flight instructor who lives
in Quarryville, Pa., near Lancaster
in the southeastern part of the
state. The newspaper said .he also
uses the last name of Garay.
An FAA spokesman said yester-
day that an Edward Garay is listed
as the manager of a 3,400-foot turf
air strip called the Tanglewood Air-
port and located in Quarryville. Ue
Garay could not he reached for
comment yesterday.
^ A preliminary inquiry by the Fed-
. eral Bureau of Investigation of the
clowned plane has concluded that no
U.S..laws were violated, a Justice
Department spokesman said yes-
terday. The FBI inquiry is separate
from the one being- conducted by
the Customs Service.
^ Salvadoran telephone bills for a
San Salvador "safe house" used by
those involved in the resupply op_
eration show that several calls were
made last month to two private
lines in the White House office of
Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, a
member of the National Security
Council staff who has acted as a
liaison on the contra effort, accord-
- ing to an Associated Press report.
Quoting an anonymous Reagan ad-
ministration source, the AP said
that North "to his knowledge" never
received any phone calls from the
safe house.
Another telephone number listed
on the bills was that of Southern Air
"transport, according to AP.
Southern Air spokesman Kress
confirmed yesterday that the com-
pany sent parts and repair teams to
the Salvadoran air force base in Ilo-
pango to help maintain the downed
plane and another C123 linked to
the effort. Hasenfus said [lopango
was the center of the resupply op-
eration.
[[asenfus, who like others in-
volved in the operation worked for
another CiA-owned proprietary air-
line, Air America, during the Viet-
nam war, has said that shortly~aftQr
Cooper hired him last July, the pilot
took hirn to Southern Air's facilities
in Miami to show him the planes
involved in the effort.
Kress also confirmed that South-
ern Air's internal travel unit pro-
vided Hasenfus with the airplane
ticket he used, but Kress said
Southern Air did not pay for the
ticket.
"the copilot of the downed plane,
Wallace B. Sawyer, worked for
Southern Air through April of this
year, Kress said. He said he was
incorrect when he had stated ear-
lier that Sawyer had worked for
Southern Air through 1985. Saw-
yer's logs retrieved from the crash
showed that he was on at least one
humanitarian aid alight to the con-
tras last Jan. [7.
Sawyer, Cooper and an uniden-
tified Nicaraguan rebel were kilted
when the plane was shot down.
Southern tlir also was hired to tly
several humanitarian aid tlights to
Central America for the contras,
which Southern Air and U.S. offi-
cials said was separate from the
weapons supply operation.
A State Department official said
yesterday the humanitarian aid of-
fice did not hire Southern Air di-
rectly, but the firm could have been
a subcontractor to another firm
hired by the department.
Sta//euriterJulia Preston in ,i~firuui
caltributed to this repast
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/04 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605070049-4