Bodies Recovered From Crash Site -- Brown's Body Identified; Land Mines On Hillside, Strong Winds Hamper Removal Of 33 Victims

The body of Ron Brown has been identified following the crash of his plane yesterday near Dubrovnik, Croatia, the White House said today.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry told reporters Clinton called Alma Brown early this morning after being told that Brig. Gen. Michael Canavan, coordinating U.S. search operations at Dubrovnik, had identified the body.

Workers, fighting high winds and sheets of rain, today had recovered all 33 victims of the crash. There were no survivors. A woman was found alive but died aboard a NATO helicopter en route to the hospital.

Pentagon officials in Washington said 27 passengers and six crew members were on board the T-43 plane, the military version of the Boeing 737-200, when it slammed into a hill known locally at Sveti Ivan, or St. John.

It had been cleared to land at Dubrovnik airport, which lies south of the historic Adriatic city.

Besides Brown and Commerce Department officials, the passengers included New York Times correspondent Nathaniel Nash and about a dozen top American executives exploring business opportunities in the Balkans.

In Washington, Clinton called Brown "a magnificent life force" and urged prayers for those aboard the lost flight.

Croatian newspapers today echoed the feeling of deep shock in a nation just recovering from 4 1/2 years of Balkan war and hopeful that resorts like Dubrovnik would again lure tourists to its stunning Adriatic coast.

"We mourn alongside America," the Vjesnik daily said in an editorial under banner headlines: "Brown's plane down - our tragedy too."

Canavan and search-and-rescue team members arrived at the crash site early today. They joined three U.S. search-and-rescue people who had been lowered by helicopter earlier and more than 100 special Croatian police and 100 French seamen.

Reporters were able to get close enough to the crash site yesterday to see the plane, its middle burned, resting on its belly on the top of a craggy hill. The area is said to be laced with land mines left over from the 1991 Serb-Croat war over Croatian independence.

The plane took off from Tuzla in northern Bosnia, the headquarters for U.S. soldiers with the NATO-led peace mission, after Brown had surprised the troops with McDonald's hamburgers and sports videotapes, including the just-concluded NCAA basketball tournament.

Croatian officials said a combination of elements may have caused the crash.

In particular, they cited the extreme weather, which has lashed Croatian's Adriatic coast with intense rain and wind up to 70 mph. Fog also was reported.

Although the weather did not force Dubrovnik's airport to close, several commercial flights were diverted yesterday, officials said. However, before Brown's flight attempted to land, five flights arrived at the airport successfully.

Officials also speculated that the plane's U.S. Air Force pilot might have been hampered by the fact that Dubrovnik's airport lacks modern radar equipment. Croatian officials said Serb forces looted the equipment when they withdrew from Dubrovnik in 1991 during Croatia's war of independence.

The airport is equipped with a radio beacon, Croatian officials said, but it lacks advanced radar and other sophisticated equipment.

Croatian officials said another factor in the crash might have been the pilot's flight plan. From Tuzla, in northeastern Bosnia, the U.S. Air Force T-43 flew directly west over the Udbina air base in south-central Croatia, they said, and then turned south, passing over the Croatian port city of Split as it headed down the Adriatic coast toward Dubrovnik.

"We are still trying to figure out what happened to the pilot and the exact approach he was trying to make," said one Croatian official. "But it appears to have been unusual."

Miljenko Radic, a Croatian government official, said flying into Dubrovnik's airport generally is a precarious business.

"The weather can change there very rapidly," he said.

Ivo Djuricic, 53, was on the hill behind his house when he heard the plane overhead. "It was very strange to hear it," he said, "because planes never fly above here."

He climbed up the hill until he saw the plane was "in large pieces, loosely together." Then he ran back, jumped in his car and raced to the village to call police.

Material from Reuters and The Washington Post is included in this report. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Those aboard ill-fated Air Force Jet

Crash victims

U.S. officials say the following people were aboard Ron Brown's Air Force jet that crashed yesterday. Still unnamend are the crew of six and two Croatians.

Ron Brown, Commerce Secretary Commerce Dept:

Adam Darling.

Gail Dolbert.

Charles Meissner.

William Morton.

Lawrence Payne.

Lee Jackson.

Carol Hamilton.

Steve Kaminsky.

Kathy Kellogg.

Catherine Hoffman.

Duane Christian. Euro, Bank of Reconstruction. Lee Jackson.

CIA:

Jim Lewek.

Civilians:

Barry Conrad, chairman, CEO, Barrington Group.

Paul Cushman, Chairman, CEO, Riggs International Banking Corp.

Robert Donovan, President of ABB Inc.

Claudio Elia, Chairman, CEO, Air & Water Technologies Corp

David Ford, President, CEO, InterGuard Corp.

Frank Maier, Sr. V.P., ENSERCH Corp.

Walter Murphy, V.P. AT&T Submarine Systems.

Leonard Pieroni, Chairman, CE), Parsons Corp.

John Scoville, Chairman, CE), Harza Engineering Co.

Donald Terner, President BRIDGE Housing Corp.

Stuart Tholan, president of Bechtel Europe, Africa, Middle East, Southwest Asia.

R.A. Whittaker, V.P., Foster Wheeler corp.

Nathaniel C. Nash, New York Times reporter.