Marine Pilot Wasn’t Reckless, Witnesses Say

Defense witnesses testified Monday that the Marine pilot charged in the deaths of 20 people in last year’s Italian cable car accident was careful to check his instruments and was not flying recklessly.

Speaking on the final day of defense testimony in the court-martial here, witnesses argued against the contention that Capt. Richard Ashby was intentionally flying too low and too fast on a training mission through the Italian Alps.

One witness, civilian crash investigator Jeffrey Edwards, said the flight data recorder showed Ashby repeatedly pushed the plane higher whenever it dipped below 1,000 feet.

“The terrain rises and falls, and they [were] keeping pretty darn close to 1,000 feet,” he said. “It’s not so much they’re descending, but the terrain is climbing very fast.”

Ashby, of Mission Viejo, faces 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter after his EA-6B Prowler sheared ski lift cables strung 357 feet over a valley, killing everyone aboard a gondola that plunged to the ground in February 1998.

Prosecutors allege Ashby, 31, was flying too aggressively during the low-altitude training mission, swooping below a 1,000-foot altitude restriction and flying full throttle at more than 638 mph.

At one point, Ashby’s jet was five nautical miles off course.

Despite signing a military investigative report blaming the Prowler’s four-man crew for the fatal accident, Marine Col. Thomas Blickensderfer also testified Monday he did not think Ashby was flying recklessly.

“I would say that was not an aggressively flown low-level” training mission,” Blickensderfer testified.

In earlier testimony, he had said the crew made mistakes and was flying too low when the accident occurred. No explanation was given for the apparent contradiction.

The case was expected to go to the jury later this week.