Ashby Faces More Charges in Gondola Incident

A Marine pilot whose jet severed lift cables at an Italian ski resort, killing 20 people, will face a second court-martial on obstruction of justice charges, a military judge said Monday.

Capt. Richard J. Ashby, 30, of Mission Viejo will stand trial on March 15 for allegedly hiding and conspiring to destroy a videotape of the tragic flight last February, a military judge said after a brief hearing at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina.

Ashby faces a separate court-martial Feb. 4 on 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide, as well as dereliction of duty, destroying military property and destroying civilian property stemming from the collision.

Military prosecutors earlier had sought to try both cases at the same time and questioned why Ashby needed more time to prepare for the court-martial on the obstruction charges.

“The defendant knows what happened. He was there in February when the videotape was snatched out of the cockpit,” Maj. Daniel Daugherty, a military prosecutor, said.

Ashby declined to enter a plea on the obstruction charges during the arraignment hearing.

Prosecutors allege that Ashby was flying his EA-6B Prowler electronic-surveillance jet too low and too fast on a Feb. 3 low-level training mission when the jet clipped two lift cables, sending 20 people in a ski gondola plummeting nearly 400 feet.

After the jet returned to the Aviano air base in Italy, officials seized a blank, unused videotape and a video camera from the front of the cockpit where Ashby and a navigator were seated. The navigator, Capt. Joseph Schweitzer, also was charged and faces a court-martial in February.

Camp Lejeune spokesman Maj. Scott Jack on Monday said officials found evidence that a second videotape was taken on the flight, but that tape apparently disappeared.

Marine Capt. Chandler Seagraves, one of two crewmen seated in the cockpit’s rear seats, was expected to be the chief witness against Ashby. Seagraves was not charged.