'The Skies Are Not for the Most Powerful'

Bloodied snow led to purple rage in Italy last week after an EA-6B U.S. Marine warplane threading through a mountain valley at treetop level severed a ski resorts lift cable, sending 20 people to their death. "The skies are not for the most powerful or for the most aggressive," Rev. Lorenzo Casarotti told mourners in the Dolomite mountain village of Cavalese. "They are for everyone." The Pentagon will pay each family $5,000 for burial costs, and the crew could face a court-martial. Residents and Italian officials said that earlier complaints about low-flying military planes, both American and Italian, had been ignored. Such aggressive flying has increased in the area since U.S.-led NATO forces have been enforcing a no-fly zone over nearby Bosnia from a base at Aviano, some 60 miles from Tuesdays accident. A veteran EA-6B pilot told TIME he was in no rush to blame his colleagues. The plane, he says, is complicated to fly and, unlike some military aircraft, has no automatic terrain-following features. On a low-level run, the plane is flying at nearly 500 mph. "At that speed," he notes, "after a minute youre six miles off course." By weeks end Italian authorities were insisting the plane was as much as six miles outside the approved flight corridor. Marine officials agree the plane was too low, and some wonder if it was trying to fly under the 300-foot-high cable. The Prowlers combat mission calls for it to fly as low as 200 feet in enemy territory, popping up only to jam or destroy enemy radar. But Marine rules require the plane to stay above 1,000 feet during training, leading some in the Pentagon to believe the pilot was "hotdogging." It was, they add, the sole pilots first time flying the challenging route.