JIM MORET, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. military has suspended all low- level flying missions in Italy after a devastating accident at a ski resort. The U.S. Marine aircraft severed a cable-car line sending 20 people plunging to their deaths.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It was a terrible accident. It turned out that the Marines were flying at too low an altitude. The pilot and the navigator were eventually charged with involuntary manslaughter, and had to stand trial. They said that this was, in fact, an honest mistake. They pointed out the maps that they had been provided didn't show the gondola cable, even though it was marked on Italian maps, and they denied vigorously that they had been joy-riding. The problem was, there was a videotape taken by one of the crew of the flight, and that videotape had been destroyed or was missing afterwards, and that was incriminating piece of evidence. Eventually, the pilot was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter, and the navigator was charged for destroying the videotape or withholding the videotape. Of course, while the pilot was acquitted, his career was over in the U.S. Marine Corps, and the families of the victims never felt that they had received full justice because no one was convicted in this accident.
CNN 20: Italy Cable Car Crash, February 3, 1998