Tell It About the Marines

Esprit de corps not withstanding, the Marine airmen involved in the Italian ski-lift accident last February have finally broken ranks: Capt. Chandler Seagraves has been granted immunity for his testimony about a videotape allegedly made during the fatal flight. But how did investigators scale the wall of silence that the four men had kept up for so long? Common sense, for one.

Although reports stopped short of confirming a quid pro quo for Seagraves' immunity deal, TIME Pentagon correspondent Mark Thompson says, "Connect the dots. They were all complicit originally in a conspiracy of silence" -- but when a guy who was in the backseat realizes they're all going to sink together for something he had no control over, self-preservation takes over. "One person has the controls of the plane," says Thompson, "and even though military tradition holds that they bear equal responsibility for situational awareness, the guy flying the plane is culpable." After Seagraves' immunity deal, the two front-seat crewmen were charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy for allegedly destroying the videotape. In exchange for avoiding charges including negligent homicide, Seagraves will tell what was on the erased (not blank, as has been reported in some quarters) videocassette found in a camera on the plane, and what happened to the tape that the two accused crewmen allegedly removed and asked Seagraves to help get rid of.