Ski Industry Italy

Capt. Richard J. Ashby was guiding a U.S. military plane through a cloudless afternoon sky over the Val di Fiemme, a playground for skiers in Italy's Dolomite Mountains, when something went terribly wrong. The 31-year-old Marine aviator from Mission Viejo had logged 750 accident-free hours in the aircraft, an EA-6B Prowler, in training runs like this one Tuesday and in the real thing--surveillance missions over war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina. This was his first pass over the Dolomites.

A rear-seat crewman in a Marine plane that sheared the cable of an Italian ski gondola, killing 20 people, said he struggles every day with the fact he was powerless inside the jet. Capt. Chandler Seagraves read from a statement at a news conference at the close of a hearing in Camp Lejeune to determine whether he and the other rear-seat crewman should face courts-martial in the tragedy.

A rear-seat crewman in a Marine plane that sheared the cable of an Italian ski gondola, killing 20 people, said he struggles every day with the fact he was powerless inside the jet. Capt. Chandler Seagraves read from a statement at a news conference at the close of a hearing in Camp Lejeune to determine whether he and the other rear-seat crewman should face courts-martial in the tragedy.

Capt. Richard J. Ashby was guiding a U.S. military plane through a cloudless afternoon sky over the Val di Fiemme, a playground for skiers in Italy's Dolomite Mountains, when something went terribly wrong. The 31-year-old Marine aviator from Mission Viejo had logged 750 accident-free hours in the aircraft, an EA-6B Prowler, in training runs like this one Tuesday and in the real thing--surveillance missions over war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina. This was his first pass over the Dolomites.