while the claim has been put forward that the plane executed a missed approach and turned to the left, the fact is that nobody at the airport (the one with 5 mile visibility) ever saw the plane anywhere near the runway. following the loss of electrical power, the plane seems to have veered slightly left of course (or to be more accurate failed to make a slight starboard turn to line up on the dubrovnik runway) and plowed into the hill. the first announcement of the crash came not from dubrovnik, or anywhere else in bosnia, but from a pentagon spokesman who requested anonymity (an off occurrence in a supposed simple airline crash) while announcing that the wreckage was not on land but in the adriatic. in a news story carried by upi on april 3rd 1996, the white house claimed that actual wreckage had been spotted. washington, april 3 (upi) -- a u.s. air force plane carrying commerce secretary ron brown in the adriatic sea near the port city of dubrovnik on tuesday, officials said. the white house said wreckage was spotted in the adriatic sea near dubrovnik. the debris apparently came from the plane, which was carrying brown and an undetermined number of leading u.s. business executives, who were on a trade mission to bosnia-herzegovina. ``the wreckage in the adriatic is his,'' a pentagon official told united press international, speaking on condition of anonymity. " as a result of these initial stories, rescue forces sent out by french and croatian forces in the area all headed to the wrong spot. as a result, it was several hours before any known parties arrived at the actual crash site.
United States