An old wound: Review reopens Aviano tragedy

[unhappycamper]

The image from a 1998 TV broadcast shows the damaged Marine EA-6B Prowler based in Aviano, Italy, after it had clipped a metal cable car line the previous day, sending 20 people in the attached gondola to their deaths.



An old wound: Review reopens Aviano tragedy
By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Oct 28, 2007 12:05:27 EDT

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Almost a decade has passed since an EA-6B Prowler clipped a ski gondola cable, plunging 20 people nearly 400 feet to their deaths near Aviano, Italy.

But allegations that the staff judge advocate who recommended charges against the pilot and navigator of the four-man crew worked too closely with the prosecution has prompted a new review of the trial.

At the direction of the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, Lt. Gen. Joseph Weber, commander of Marine Corps Forces Command, has ordered a new SJA recommendation in the cases of Richard Ashby and Joseph Schweitzer.

Both men, captains at the time, were dismissed from the Corps in 1999 for their roles in destroying a personal videotape Schweitzer shot during the Feb. 3, 1998, flight, in which the radar-jamming jet was flying well below established minimum altitudes.

The incident grabbed headlines around the globe. Five Belgians, two Poles, seven Germans, three Italians, two Austrians and one Dutch national died in the accident.

Families of the victims filed a lawsuit against the U.S. seeking damages. In the end, the families settled for $40 million.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/10/marine_aviano_071028/