United States v. Ashby

Judge ERDMANN

delivered the opinion of the court.1

Appellant, Captain (Capt.) Richard J. Ash-by, United States Marine Corps Reserve, was the pilot of an EA-6B Prowler aircraft conducting a training mission in the Italian Alps on February 3, 1998. The Prowler’s crew consisted of Ashby, Capt. Joseph P. Schweitzer, who was the navigator for this mission and Ashby’s co-accused, and two additional electronic countermeasures officers. Late in the mission the aircraft was flying at low-levels and struck weight-bearing cables of the Aple Cermis cable car system. As a result, a descending cable car…