Vietnamese to Turn Over U.S. Fliers Tuesday
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MANILA — Vietnamese authorities will turn over to U.S. diplomats Tuesday three U.S. Navy aviators rescued by a Vietnamese ship after their plane crashed into the South China Sea last week, the Navy said today.
Chief Petty Officer James O’Leary said in a telephone interview from Subic Bay Naval Base that the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, is to send a plane Tuesday to fetch the three from Tan Son Nhut airport in Vietnam and fly them to the Thai capital.
A Navy plane will then fly the three aviators--Lt. Richard Maurer, Lt. (j.g.) Elizabeth Steinnecker and Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Neel--back to Subic, 50 miles northwest of Manila.
The three were flying to Subic from Singapore aboard a CT-39E twin-engine transport jet when they crashed in the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands last Tuesday, Navy spokesmen said.
U.S. and Malaysian aircraft had been conducting an extensive search for the three when Vietnam announced Friday that they had been found.
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