1.
GV Fork-lift trucks Loading rice onto Air America aircraft at Vientiane airport
0.16

2.
GV Air America employees inside aircraft
0.27

3.
GV Aircraft taxis
0.35

4.
GV Pilots - both American - at controls
0.38

5.
Aerial views
0.48

6.
GV Food supplies pushed out door and falling towards village
1.02

7.
CU Pilot
1.05

8.
GV Food supplies hitting the ground
1.18


Fork-lift trucks loading rice into aircraft at Vientiane, aircraft taking off, pilots at controls, aerial views of Plain of Jarres, food supplies pushed out of door of aircraft and falling towards village, supplies hitting ground.




Initials OS/2208 OS/2218



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In Laos, supplies of rice are being air-dropped to villages isolated by recent fighting.

The food is being dropped from old propellor-driven aircraft owned by Air America.

Recent Communist successes on the Plain of Jarres have left several communities isolated in the area between the administrative capital, Vientiane and the Royal capital, Luang Prabang.

SYNOPSIS: The beginning of a relief mission. It starts at Vientiane airport in Laos as rice is loaded aboard an elderly propellor-driven aircraft, owned by Air America. The food was to be dropped to villages isolated in recent fighting on the Plain fa Jarres.

Air America has reportedly been involved in secret intelligence work over Laos - but a considerable part of its work is concerned with ferrying food snd other essential supplies.

On this mission the isolated villages lie well to the North. American pilots are at the controls as the aircraft flies out over the Plain which has been the scene of several Communist successes recently. The food is going to villages in the area between Vientiane and the Royal capital of Luang Prabang.

It's not the first time that villagers on the Plain have been isolated by the fortunes of war. For years control of this territory has see-sawed back and forth between the Communists and the Government.