By Ronan McGreevy
Evening Standard Online
October
5
Four city businessmen are feared dead after their light plane vanished without trace over Cuba. Families of the men claim it was shot down.
The mystery disappearance of the four-seater Piper Archer turned into an international incident today as the families complained to the Foreign Office. They claimed the men's plane, hired during a Caribbean holiday, had been shot down when it strayed into Cuban air space.
The men, Paul Baxter, 26, fellow Briton Conrad Dobinson, 27, Australian Paul Hooper, 29, and South African Cliff Rotze, 28, were on a three-week holiday island-hopping around the Caribbean when they disappeared.
Mr Dobinson, an assistant trader, Mr Hooper and Mr Rotze, both City accountants, and Mr Baxter, a stockbroker, were flying from the Bahamas to Kingston, Jamaica, when it is believed they hit bad weather off the south-west coast of Haiti.
Their last contact, requesting weather information, was with Port au Prince air traffic control at 4.48pm on the afternoon of 18 August.
A two-day US coastguard search of a stretch of water between Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti revealed no trace of the plane. Lt-Cmdr Jeff Rivolo, from the US coastguard, told Virgin Radio this morning: "I can't speculate on why or what happened with the aircraft, but the aircraft did receive a weather advisory from a local airbase that there were thunderstorms in the vicinity of Jamaica."
The brother of Mr Baxter, 26, who was flying the plane, believes that the hired Piper Archer may have been shot down by Cubans after entering their airspace to avoid the bad weather.
Stephen Baxter, 24, said: "He may have gone between 15 to 20 miles into Cuban airspace to get around the weather. The Cubans should have picked this up on radar, but they say they have 'no record' of it.
"Cuba has shot down civilian aircraft entering its airspace before. Paul was a very experienced pilot. He knew how to deal with bad weather. I can't believe this has happened." A Foreign Office spokeswoman said it was not prepared
to comment on the cause of the plane's disappearance in advance of an investigation by the American National Transportation and Safety Board. The plane was hired in Florida on 11 August.
Three of the men, Mr Dobinson, Mr Hooper and Mr Rotze, shared a flat together in Soho for two years. Mr Baxter, a stockbroker, was a regular visitor.
Their flatmate, Debbie Shiels, said: "We were like one big happy family. We are still hopeful, but realistically we know they are not coming back."
Relatives now fear the worst and a memorial service will be held for Mr Dobinson in his home village of Wolviston, near Teesside, on 31 October.
His father, Charles Dobinson, said: "The worst thing is that we may never know what happened to him. I don't believe he is still alive. It has been too long."
Relatives were not informed until 10 days after their disappearance.
© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 05 October 1998
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