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intercession of Col. Antonio Batres, Chief of the Guatemalan Air Force and the personal pilot of Presi- dent Ydigoras Fuentes. 26/ In the second instance, a C-54 with a Cuban pilot and a North American instructor was coming through the mountains when one of the wings touched an outcropping and tore a third of the wing off. The consequence was a forced landing on the beach near Champerico. Neither the pilot nor the co-pilot were injured, but a Cuban pilot who was on board as an observer suffered a wound and had to be evacuated to a hospital. in the United states. 26a/ Needless to say that North American trainers took a rather dim view of these accidents. The episode in Mexico, in particular, caused considerable consternation. Major Campbell, who was in charge of the flight training operations, made the following comment: We set up operations ... and prepared the first air crews to fly resupply mis- sions into Cuba. There must be about 7 or 8 hours of tape on the first mission We lost that first airplane. Stan Beerli was with me down there [Guatemala], and we both sat up all night long waiting for the bird to come back. This is the one where the air crew dropped a 12,000 lb. - 114 -