Ashby Took Part in Cover-Up, Navigator Says

A Marine navigator whose jet sliced a ski gondola cable and killed 20 people in Italy said Friday that he told the pilot to remove a videotape of the flight because he worried that footage of the jet flying upside down would make them look bad.

“I said, ‘The Italians will eat you alive,’ ” Capt. Joseph Schweitzer testified at Capt. Richard Ashby’s obstruction of justice and conspiracy trial.

Last month, Schweitzer pleaded guilty to the same charges Ashby, of Mission Viejo, faces for destroying the videotape. A jury recommended that Schweitzer, 31, of Westbury, N.Y., be dismissed from the Marines.

Schweitzer testified that he used the camera three times before the Marine EA-6B Prowler clipped an Italian gondola cable, dropping 20 people to their deaths.

Footage showed Ashby putting the jet through a roll, Schweitzer said, and of Schweitzer smiling into the camera.

He said that after Ashby nursed the jet back to the Aviano, Italy, air base, he and Ashby looked at the video camera.

Schweitzer said he told Ashby, “This thing had nothing to do with the mishap.”

Schweitzer said he also worried that the video would show his face.

“I couldn’t deal with my face being superimposed on the blood in the snow,” he said.

Ashby, 32, pleaded innocent and could be dismissed from the Marines or sent to prison for up to 10 years if convicted.

In March, Ashby was acquitted of 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the tragedy.