Marine Jet Was Flown Too Fast, Witness Testifies

A Marine jet that sliced through an Italian ski gondola cable, killing 20 people, violated the mission’s speed limit during almost all of the flight, a witness testified Wednesday.

Chief Warrant Officer Jeffrey Poncelet said his analysis of tapes from the EA-6B Prowler flown by Capt. Richard Ashby showed that 89% of the flight was faster than the speed limit of 517 mph. The jet was going more than 575 mph for 58% of the flight, he said.

Prosecutors have said the radar-jamming jet struck the ski gondola cable at 621 mph. Poncelet’s testimony supported their claim that Ashby should have known he was flying too fast and violating an altitude restriction of 1,000 feet. The cable was hit at about 360 feet.

Ashby, 31, of Mission Viejo, is being court-martialed on 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter and other offenses. He could get more than 200 years in prison.

Also Wednesday, two witnesses testified that the radar altimeter on the jet had malfunctioned on two earlier flights but was fixed.

Maintenance officer Lt. Col. Gary Eugene Slyman said that when Ashby signed out the EA-6B Prowler on Feb. 3, 1998, the jet had a missing screw and an erratic air-conditioner but nothing serious enough to ground it.

Slyman said that when he flew the plane on an earlier mission, the altimeter alarm, which is supposed to go off when the plane dips below a preset altitude, sounded at 25,000 feet instead of at the lower elevation it was set for. He said he reset the alarm and it corrected itself.

Capt. Scott Roys testified the radar altimeter stuck when he was in the same jet another time, but he and the pilot fixed it.

After the jet hit the cable, Ashby filed a complaint about the radar altimeter, Slyman said. Slyman didn’t elaborate on the nature of the problem Ashby cited.

Defense attorneys also contend the ski area in the Alps wasn’t on Ashby’s map.