Tape Should Not Have Been Destroyed, Pilot Testifies

A Marine pilot accused of obstructing justice by helping destroy a videotape of a flight that clipped an Italian gondola cable, killing 20 people, testified Wednesday that he wishes he had acted differently.

“I wish we would have left the tape there,” said Capt. Richard Ashby, 32, of Mission Viejo, Calif. “If we had taken the tape, we should have turned it over to somebody to watch. . . . I don’t think taking a personal videotape is a crime.

“I wanted to get out of the aircraft. I was shaking. I wanted out.”

The defense rested its case after Ashby testified for more than two hours at his obstruction of justice and conspiracy trial. The case could go to the seven-man military jury today. Ashby could get 10 years in prison or be dismissed from the service if convicted.

During the Feb. 3, 1998, training flight, the right wing of Ashby’s four-seat EA-6B Prowler cut a ski gondola cable at Cavalese, Italy. Twenty people plunged 370 feet to their deaths. A separate jury acquitted Ashby in March of 20 manslaughter charges.

Ashby had testified that he handed the videotape to his navigator, Capt. Joseph Schweitzer, who then threw the tape into a bonfire.

Schweitzer “wanted it gone. I wanted to look at it. That’s all I’ve ever said.

“He asked for it. I responded I want to see what’s on it. I wanted to watch it. It ended up getting kind of to where we were butting heads a little bit, and when it started getting to where we were fighting about it, we were disagreeing, I just said, ‘Here, it’s your tape,’ something of that nature, and I left it at that.”

Prosecutors believe the videotape was a key piece of evidence and may have recorded portions of the flight. Ashby and Schweitzer took Ashby’s personal video camera to record their final low-level training mission in the Italian Alps.

Schweitzer had problems operating Ashby’s video camera during the flight, and Ashby testified he believed nothing was recorded.

Ashby maintains that he did not intend to obstruct justice.

Schweitzer, 31, of Westbury, N.Y., pleaded guilty to the same obstruction charges Ashby faces and was sentenced to dismissal from the service.