When a private plane was shot down in Peru’s Amazon basin April 20 killing an American missionary and her 7-month-old daughter, it was the first reported mistake by the Peruvian air force in its efforts to stop drug flights in the area. But it has had a chilling effect on local pilots, who worry that the air force is operating with impunity, and fear for their own safety. Air charter companies in Iquitos have dropped from about 70 in 1995 to only four now, flying to remote jungle locations in small planes. If traveling in the area, consider going by boat rather than charter aircraft. Regularly scheduled passenger flights in and out of Iquitos are not a target of the air force’s drug interdiction efforts.
