Washington Post
April 26, 2000
Pg. 8

U.S. Settles In Gondola Crash For $40 Million

By The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C., April 25 The families of all 20 people killed when a Marine jet clipped an Italian ski gondola two years ago have accepted settlements of nearly $2 million apiece, the attorney for five Belgian families said today.

C. Torrence Armstrong said his clients will drop a lawsuit seeking damages against the United States in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

The settlements were accepted April 14, Armstrong said. He said the U.S. government is responsible for paying 75 percent of the $40 million total.

Armstrong said the settlement offer came solely from Italy. "Begrudgingly, the U.S. supported it," he said. "It seems this is all the U.S. is going to do."

Armstrong also said the Navy hasn't kept its promise to give the families a report about the safety of military flights over Italy.

Efforts to reach the Pentagon for comment were unsuccessful.

The settlements end the civil lawsuits stemming from the Feb. 3, 1998, tragedy near Cavalese, Italy. An EA-6B Prowler based at Cherry Point Marine Air Base was deployed at Aviano Air Base in Italy for missions over Bosnia when it clipped the ski gondola cable during a training flight. All 20 people in the gondola died when it plummeted to the ground. The damaged jet made it back to base.

Investigators blamed the flight crew for the tragedy, saying the plane was flying too low and too fast when it hit the cable.

The pilot, Capt. Richard J. Ashby, of Mission Viejo, Calif., was acquitted of manslaughter but sentenced to six months in the brig for destroying a videotape shot during the flight.

The Prowler's navigator, Capt. Joseph Schweitzer of Westbury, N.Y., was dismissed from the Marines after pleading guilty to a similar charge for the videotape's disappearance.

Charges were dropped against the two back-seat crewmen.