Witness Cites Misreading of Terrain by Pilot

A Marine Corps pilot may have mistaken a line formed by white rock and buildings for the horizon when he flew his jet into the cable of an Italian ski gondola, killing 20 people, a defense witness testified Thursday.

Navy Cmdr. Fred Patterson, an expert on visual phenomena, said Capt. Richard Ashby’s misreading of the terrain could have made him think he was flying higher than he was.

Moreover, the open valley would have limited the peripheral-vision cues that might have told him if he was going too fast, he said.

Prosecutors contend that Ashby, 31, of Mission Viejo, Calif., was flying the EA-6B Prowler too low and too fast when it hit the cable about 370 feet above the ground on Feb. 3, 1998. He is charged with 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter and other charges and could get more than 200 years in prison.

Defense attorneys contend that the government-issue map Ashby used did not show the Mt. Cermis ski lift near Cavalese, Italy; the jet’s altimeter malfunctioned; and an optical illusion made Ashby think he was flying higher than he was.

Patterson said when Ashby entered the valley where the ski lift was located, mountains blocked the real horizon, so he may have focused on a horizontal line formed by white rock and buildings at the end of the valley.

Using a sped-up video of the valley shot during a helicopter flight after the accident, Patterson said the false horizon could draw a pilot lower and cause him to fly straight through the ski lift cables.

Patterson said that if the EA-6B Prowler were equipped with what is called a “heads-up display,” which beams the true horizon somewhere in the cockpit, Ashby would not have been drawn to the line made by the rocks.