Bells Toll for Italian Ski Car Dead

In the little Alpine town of Cavalese, set amid the majestic peaks of Italy’s Dolomite mountains, church bells tolled and relatives of 20 skiers held hands in silence Wednesday, a year after their loved ones perished in a cable car crash caused by a U.S. Marine jet.

The 25 relatives stood in a semicircle around the spot where the gondola slammed into the ground, its cable clipped by the low-flying jet. A memorial inscribed with 20 names was unveiled.

The pilot of the EA-6B Prowler, Capt. Richard Ashby of Mission Viejo, faces court-martial on 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter beginning today at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The navigator, Capt. Joseph Schweitzer, faces a separate court-martial on similar charges March 1. If convicted, they could spend the rest of their lives in prison.

“It is terrible to remember how last year the snow here was spotted with blood,” said Bert Berger, father of the only Dutch victim, 20-year-old Danielle Groenleer. “But I am happy I came because it is comforting to see so many people who care.”

Earlier, a memorial service was held at the Roman Catholic church in Cavalese, where shops and ski lifts were closed.

As many as 300 people crowded into the church to pay their respects. Many carried bouquets of red roses for the dead, who came from Poland, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The United States was represented Marine Maj. Gen. Ronald G. Richard as well as by diplomats from Milan and Rome.

“The pain that one year ago visited the lives of so many people is our pain,” Rev. Renzo Caserotti said.

“It is not a natural death, it is a death against nature. It is a death that could have been avoided, caused by an airplane that flew very low, outside all rules,” the priest said.

On the slopes of Mount Cermis, a newly planted pine tree marks the spot where the gondola plummeted 300 feet to the ground.

The passage of a year has done little to cool passions raised by the accident, which outraged many Italians, angered and bereaved family members, caused trouble between Washington and Rome and compromised the careers of the four Marine officers in the plane.

“It still hurts like it did the first day,” said Sindy Renkewitz, 20, one of the family members who traveled to Cavalese. Her father and sister were among seven persons from the eastern German town of Burgstadt who were killed by the American jet.

The grief of family members has been further inflamed by bitterness that the U.S. government has yet to compensate families of those who died. The pilot and navigator stand accused of manslaughter for deliberately flying their jet too fast and too low. Marine commanders are accused of failing to properly equip the aviators and of bowing to political pressures in agreeing to charge the crew members.

“I want the pilot to look in my eyes, and I want him to feel what I feel, and see what he’s done to us,” said Renkewitz, who will attend the trial with her mother.

The Prowler was flying at up to 543 knots when it struck the cable at a height of approximately 370 feet, in violation of speed and altitude restrictions, according to estimates presented during preliminary hearings last summer.

“It is horrible to see how low the jet flew,” Berger said. “I can’t imagine it was just a mistake. If I drive a car, I know how fast I’m going. So how can the pilots say they didn’t know how low they were?”

Marine Lt. Col. Ronald Rodgers, who presided at the hearings, recommended that Ashby be tried for involuntary manslaughter. But his report noted that a court-martial was in “substantial doubt” because of evidence of “systemic errors” on the part of the Marine Corps. The cable line, for instance, was not on charts supplied to the crew.

Supporters of Ashby portray him as a scapegoat for Marine Corps failures. “This is unprecedented, to prosecute an aircrew for an accident, and make them criminally accountable,” said Frank Spinner, Ashby’s attorney.

But Rodgers, while voicing his doubts, also asserted that Ashby may have been responsible for the accident by “overly aggressively” flying the plane.

A member of Ashby’s Prowler squadron said the pilot had a reputation for being “cocky and aggressive” and for flying fast and banking his aircraft. Only 10 days before the accident, Ashby had to be counseled by supervisors about a low takeoff he made from the Aviano air base, according to court documents.

A key item of controversy involves a personal video camera carried by the crew to make home video of the scenic mountain terrain through which they were flying. Rodgers said the decision to shoot video during the flight “arguably indicates a somewhat cavalier approach to a challenging low-level route with which the pilot and crew were not intimately familiar.”

Perhaps more damaging to the crew’s case is what they did with the tape after the flight.

Marine Capt. Chandler Seagraves, who was in the rear cockpit during the accident, has told prosecutors that Ashby and Schweitzer asked him a week after the accident “what do you think we should do with (the videotape); and I said I would get rid of it.” A few days later, Seagraves said, the two told him “it’s gone. We destroyed it.”

Ashby and Schweitzer have been charged with obstruction of justice in connection with the missing videotape. However, in Ashby’s case, that charge will be heard at a separate court-martial at the request of the defense, which has also filed a motion asking that testimony about the tape not be heard during the trial for involuntary manslaughter.

Seagraves and a second Marine officer in the rear cockpit during the accident, Capt. William Raney II, were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing last summer. Each has been granted immunity and is expected to testify in the courts-martial.

Associated Press contributed to this report.