No Reason for Low Flight Path, Investigator Tells Court-Martial

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A Marine Corps pilot intentionally flew low and fast before his EA-6B Prowler cut a ski gondola cable, killing 20 people, an accident expert testified Monday.

“It was reckless,” Bernard Coogan said. “There was no need to be down in that valley so low at that speed.”

Coogan testified as the court-martial for Capt. Richard Ashby, 31, entered its third week. Ashby, being tried on 20 counts of manslaughter, was at the controls of the Prowler on Feb. 3, 1998, when it cut the cable at Cavalese, Italy, killing everyone on the gondola.

Prosecutors contend Ashby was flying too low and too fast, against regulations. The defense contends Ashby was the victim of a faulty radar altimeter and a map that didn’t show the lift; they also say an optical illusion made him think he was flying higher.

Coogan, a former military pilot who has investigated more than 1,000 aircraft accidents, said he concentrated his examination on the final six to eight seconds of the Prowler’s flight.

Using a three-dimensional topographical map of the valley with radar plots and witness statements, Coogan traced the Prowler’s flight path.

Ashby didn’t have a good military reason, Coogan said, to fly so low--the cables were hit at about 360 feet--because he wasn’t timing the flight. Usually, a low-level flight is run against the clock, so at best the flight was an orientation run that should have been done at a higher altitude, he said.