Ski-Lift Probe Costs Marine His Post

The Marine Corps said Wednesday that the commander of an EA-6B attack jet squadron has been relieved of duty in connection with the probe of a cable-car tragedy involving another unit that killed 20 people in Italy.

The statement came one week after a Marine EA-6B flew too low in the Dolomite Mountains of northern Italy and cut the support cable of a ski-lift car.

The gondola plunged to the ground, killing 20 people in the resort of Cavalese.

The officer, Lt. Col. Stephen Watters, was not the commander of the squadron of EA-6Bs based in Aviano that was involved in the Feb. 4 incident. But his squadron had previously been assigned to the region, the corps said.

Watters was relieved of duty at the Marine Corps air station in Cherry Point, N.C., last week after a video taken from an EA-6B about seven months ago indicated that he had also flown below the regulated altitude in northern Italy, Marine Corps officials said.

Gen. Michael Ryan, commander of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, relieved Watters after he received a report that Watters called officers in his squadron together in Cherry Point and told them to make any homemade videotapes of low-level flights “disappear.”