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AP1986

FILE - Eugene Hasenfus stands outside U.S. District Court in Miami, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 1986 after appearing at a status hearing in his lawsuit against two Iran-Contra figures. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

MADISON, Wis. – Eugene Hasenfus, who played a key role in unraveling the Iran-Contra affair after his CIA-backed supply plane was shot down over Nicaragua in 1986, has died.

Hasenfus died on Nov. 26 in Menominee, Michigan, after a nine-year battle with cancer, according to his obituary from the Hansen-Onion-Martell Funeral Home in Marinette, Wisconsin. He was 84.

Hasenfus was born Jan. 22, 1941, in Marinette. He served with the Marines in Vietnam and continued a private career in aviation before he became a key figure in the Cold War's Iran-Contra scandal in 1986.

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