BROWN'S PLANE HITS HILL S.E. OF DUBROVNIK - TUDJMAN

ZAGREB, April 3 (Hina) - A plane carrying US Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown crashed southeast of the southern Croatian coastal town of Dubrovnik, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman said in a telephone interview with Cable News Network (CNN) on Wednesday evening. "I have just informed President Clinton that I have received confirmations that Secretary Brown's aircraft crashed on the hill St John, 10 miles southeast of Dubrovnik." Brown and a delegation of US government officials and business people were on their way from Tuzla, northeast Bosnia, to Dubrovnik. "Weather conditions were not good but three landings took place at Dubrovnik airport half an hour before the scheduled landing of Secretary Brown's aircraft," Tudjman said, stressing that the plane had not crashed into the Adriatic Sea. The Croatian president rejected any possibility of hostile action as the cause of the plane's crash. Tudjman said he did not have information about the fate of the passengers aboard the plane. Speaking of the progress of the investigation, Tudjman said he had appointed a state commission and instructed the government to make every possible effort to clarify the circumstances of the tragic event. "I'm expecting new reports about the investigation and I'm going to be in touch with President Clinton," he said. (hina) vm jn 032229 MET apr 96