O.C. Jet Pilot Charged in Gondola Incident

The Marine Corps has charged a jet pilot from Mission Viejo and three other crewmen with negligent homicide in the severing of a gondola cable in Italy last month that plunged 20 people to their deaths, a Pentagon official said Thursday.

The four crewmen of the EA-6B Prowler jet have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter and dereliction of duty, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The charges also include damaging military and private property, the official said.

The gondola--packed with skiers at an Italian Alpine resort--crashed into the slopes after the jet, based in Aviano, Italy, sliced its cable Feb. 3 in one of the deadliest training incidents since the end of the Cold War.

The Marine Corps had been expected to bring charges against the men involved in the incident, which set off a crisis in U.S.-Italian relations and sparked calls from some Italians for the removal of U.S. troops from their country.

Earlier this month, a Marine investigation board that worked closely with Italian officials placed the blame for the tragedy on the four crew members, saying they broke rules on how fast and how low they could fly.

The four crew members refused then to talk to investigators on the advice of their lawyers, submitting only written statements. In the statements, the crew denied they were “flat-hatting”--military slang for violating altitude restrictions.

The next step is an Article 32 hearing, which is the equivalent of a civilian grand jury proceeding, to determine if there is evidence to support criminal charges.

That hearing will be held at Camp Lejeune, N.C., but no date or time has yet been announced for it. The officer who will conduct the proceeding is Lt. Col. Ronald L. Rogers, a Marine Corps military judge.

Rogers’ recommendations will be passed on to Lt. Gen. Peter Pace, the commander of the U.S. Marines in the Atlantic. He will decide whether the proceedings might move forward to a court-martial, should that be recommended.

Court-appointed engineers working for Italian prosecutors concluded that the Prowler jet was flying at 356 feet when the accident occurred. The authorized minimum altitude for the flight was 1,000 feet.

The four crewmen, all active-duty Marines who were on temporary assignment at Aviano, returned to their home base at Cherry Point, N.C., on March 14 and have been put on non-flying status.

They were identified as: Capt. Richard Ashby, 31, of Mission Viejo, the pilot; Capt. Joseph Schweitzer, 30, of Westbury, N.Y.; Capt. William Raney II, 26, of Englewood, Colo.; and Capt. Chandler Seagraves, 28, of Nineveh, Ind.