20 Skiers Killed When Marine Plane Crashes into Cable Car
US Investigators Enroute

The EA-6B Prowler

A U.S. military jet on a training flight over the Dolomite mountains in northeast Italy was flying too low yesterday when its tail ripped through the cable of a tram carrying 20 skiers and visitors to Mount Cermis.

The cable car plunged 600 feet killing everyone aboard including seven Germans, five Belgians, three Italians, two Poles, two Austrians and one Dutch citizen. The Marine Corps plane, an EA-6B Prowler, made an emergency landing and no one aboard was injured.

Meanwhile, the US military today sent investigators from the Marine Corps air base in Cherry Point, North Carolina, to the scene. The plane was on a temporary assignment in Italy from the North Carolina air base.

"We will do everything we can to learn the cause of this accident and to work with the government of Italy to provide assistance," US Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen said yesterday. Cohen said he would speak with Italian Defense Secretary Beniamino Andreatta "to express (his) personal condolences." Andreatta is at the scene of the accident today with his team of investigators.

"I want to express my deepest sympathy to the families and loved ones of those who perished in this accident"- Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen

The cable car is used to carry skiers and other visitors from the small town of Cavalese to the slopes of Mount Cermis, to the south.

The Italian press has reported past problem with low flying military planes from the NATO air base in Aviano. There have allegedly been numerous complaints by residents of the area of planes flying under the cables.

"The military aircraft must stop playing war games, putting people's safety in grave danger," the Italian news agency ANSA reported Carlo Andreotti, the regional government president as saying. "Many people say the military planes even play games by actually passing under the cables of the ski lifts." said Andreotti.

In 1987, a similar accident there involving a low flying civilian aircraft left 24 skiers in a stranded car. All were rescued.

The aircraft involved in Tuesday's accident, the EA-6B is an electronic surveillance plane normally used to assist other aircraft, according to literature on the craft, "by suppressing and degrading enemy defense systems" by jamming electronic signals. It can also track and destroy radar sites.

The Prowler is just short of 60 feet long and is just over 16 feet tall. It weighs 28,868 pounds and carries a crew of four. — Sarah Love, Mountain Zone Staff