Bomber Pilots May Be Charged

Sources say the Air Force is expected to announce criminal charges as early as Friday against two American F-16 fighter pilots who mistakenly bombed Canadian troops in Afghanistan in April, killing four and injuring eight others.

That report is according to U.S. defense officials commenting on the condition of anonymity.

A joint U.S.-Canadian investigation was completed during the summer and officials said then that the two men were responsible for the "friendly fire" deaths because they had not exercised proper procedures and due caution.

The U.S. Central Command publicly released the basic findings of the investigation in June but did not release details, explaining then that it needed more time to remove classified information from the report.

"I expect that there will be a joint announcement Friday and that the Air Force will say that it is bringing charges on the recommendation of investigators," said one of the defense officials, who asked not to be identified.

A 1,500-page report on the investigation of one of the worst such incidents of the Afghan war determined that Maj. Harry Schmidt of the Illinois Air National Guard did not take time to assess properly the threat on the ground before dropping a 500-pound laser-guided bomb on Canadian troops conducting a night military exercise near Kandahar.

It also accused fellow F-16 pilot and flight leader Maj. William Umbach of failure to exercise due leadership as the head of the two-aircraft flight.

Because Schmidt and Umbach are members of the Illinois Air National Guard and are no longer mobilized under federal authority, they would have to be recalled to active duty to face the charges.

The pilots said at the time that they were not aware of the exercise and thought they were being fired at. But investigators said a U.S. AWACS (airborne warning and control system) radar aircraft directing the flight had told the two men to delay any attack while checks were being made.

Sources say the Air Force will recommend that Schmidt, as the one who actually dropped the bomb, be charged with involuntary manslaughter and a failure to exercise flight discipline.

Officials say Umbach, as lead pilot, could face charges of aiding and abetting Schmidt in the involuntary manslaughter. The thinking behind that charge is that Umbach should have forcefully intervened to stop Schmidt from dropping the bomb until confirmation of the target was received.

It is not clear whether the recommended charges against the pilots would be considered under Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice - essentially like a grand jury proceeding in the civilian judicial system - or might be taken directly to a court martial.

In April, both President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien expressed deep regret about the incident, as the Canadian public clamored for answers.

The bombing of the Canadian troops on April 17 was the first time since the Korean War that Canadian soldiers had died in a combat zone.

Investigators determined that the members of Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry were in no way responsible for the incident when they were bombed while conducting a night live-fire training exercise on the ground near Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan.

Umbach got permission from the AWACS to determine the precise location of what the flight thought was surface-to-air fire. While the lead pilot was trying to get those coordinates, the pilot of the second F-16 requested permission to fire on the location.

The AWACS told the pilots to stand by, but Schmidt provided the coordinates and then radioed that he was "rolling in, in self-defense", according to investigators.

The investigation that was completed in June determined that Schmidt and Umbach were largely to blame for the mistaken attack, although it also found undisclosed problems in the pilots' command structure.

The decision on disciplinary action was left to Lt. Gen. Michael Moseley, the senior Air Force officer in Central Command. In August, however, that responsibility was transferred to Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the 8th Air Force, based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Lawyers for Schmidt and Umbach had claimed Moseley was predisposed to find the pilots guilty.