Angolan warplane downed by S. African survey plane

The downing of an Angolan jet by the South African Air Force after a dogfight over southern Angola resulted from a normal reconnaissance flight, Monitor correspondent Paul Van Slambrouck writes.

The main purpose of these flights is to gather intelligence about SWAPO (South-West Africa People's Organization) guerrillas fighting for control of Namibia (South-West Africa) and about Angolan ground installations that might aid SWAPO. Pretoria said Tuesday's operation, resulting in the Angolan Soviet-built fighter being shot down, followed information that SWAPO received a large infusion of new arms and equipment over the past 10 days.