Marine Alleges Cable-Car Coverup
With help from a Marine aboard the jet that killed 20 in an Italian gondola mishap, military prosecutors have charged the pilot and navigator with conspiracy to destroy a videotape allegedly made during the flight, two newspapers reported Wednesday.
A third flier on the jet, Capt. Chandler Seagraves, may be granted immunity in exchange for telling prosecutors about the alleged videotape, The Daily News of Jacksonville and The Washington Post reported.
On Saturday, pilot Capt. Richard Ashby and navigator Capt. Joseph Schweitzer were charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy. The reasons for the new charges weren't immediately explained.
According to the newspapers, the charges were filed after the Marine Corps found evidence that a personal videotape had been made of the Feb. 3 accident aboard the EA-6B Prowler training mission over the Alps. All 20 people in the falling gondola were killed when the jet clipped the ski lift cable.
The government claims Ashby and Schweitzer removed the videotape from the aircraft and asked Seagraves to help them get rid of it, the newspapers reported. The tape is believed to have been destroyed.
Investigators who examined a tape that was found in the crew's video camera after the accident said it was blank. Prosecutors believe the blank tape was swapped with the tape that captured the accident, the newspapers reported.
Capt. Paul Kaplan, Seagraves' lead military attorney, confirmed to the News that his client was granted immunity. Kaplan said he was not certain whether Seagraves would be called as a witness in the courts-martial for Ashby and Schweitzer.
The video is "a small part of the whole picture" of the information he can provide, Kaplan told the News.
Ashby, 30, of Mission Viejo, Calif., and Schweitzer, 30, of Westbury, N.Y., will be tried at Camp Lejeune in December and January on charges of involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide and other counts. Ashby and Schweitzer have denied flying recklessly.
Similar charges were dismissed against Seagraves and the fourth flier, Capt. William Raney II, who were both operating electronic equipment from the jet's rear seats and had no control over the operation of the jet.
The grant of immunity would allow Seagraves to speak freely as an impartial witness to the events that occurred, Kaplan told the News.
"He's just going to tell the whole truth of whatever he's asked," Kaplan said. "If they want to focus on certain areas, then he'll focus on those areas. But whatever it is, he's just going tell the whole story."
Attorneys for Ashby and Schweitzer told the Post they had not reviewed the papers filed by the government concerning the alleged videotape.
"Our clients aren't guilty of obstruction of justice," David Beck, Schweitzer's attorney told the Post.
A hearing is being planned to determine whether Ashby and Schweitzer will also be ourt-martialed on obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice charges.