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"I yelled, 'Oh, God,' and looked over my shoulder and saw nothing but fire," said Antonio Vivona, 29, the youngest member of the team. "For some damned reason Ivo hit Giorgio Alessio, the No. 2 in the left group, who then hit our chief, Mario Naldini." Vivona's jet was hit by flying debris, but he managed to put down on an emergency landing field six miles away.
& As the fireball mushroomed upward, dozens of spectators suffered fatal burns. Some stood dazed and naked amid the chaos, clothes burned off and blackened skin hanging in shreds. At least six of the dead and 40 of the injured were U.S. citizens, mostly military personnel or their dependents. Nearly all of the remaining dead and injured were West Germans.
West German medical officials later complained that air-base authorities were inadequately prepared for such a disaster. "I have to ask myself why there were no mobile medical teams at the site," said Wolfgang Herbig, a hospital director in the nearby town of Kaiserslautern. "There are always many ambulances at motor races or soccer games." Base officials defended their planning. "You don't plan for 300 and more injuries," protested one U.S. Government official. "If you had any idea that might happen, you wouldn't let the show take place."
Exactly so, said many critics. The Frecce Tricolori have a reputation for recklessness. Nutarelli, the oldest on the team, was a daredevil known for a breathtaking stunt called the bell ringer, in which he killed his engine in midair, plummeted downward and restarted it in time to pull up before crashing. "The Italians fly with brio, with panache and with skill," said Jacques Bottelin, leader of France's Patrouille Martini civilian flying team. "But they push too far." The Italian team has performed in the U.S., most recently two years ago at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington. Significantly, the Italians were prevented by FAA safety standards from flying the heart maneuver over spectators.
The rules at Ramstein apparently did not prohibit such maneuvers. The commanding officer of the Italian team, Lieut. Colonel Diego Raineri, said the squad had performed a test run of its act the day before the show for air-base authorities, who had approved it. U.S. officials at Ramstein declined any comment on the disaster, except to express condolences to victims and their families.
West German officials had a more visceral reaction. Defense Minister Rupert Scholz declared that air shows "will never again take place," though he soon modified the ban to cover only military displays. Shows scheduled later this month in Bitburg and Lechfeld were hurriedly canceled. Many officials expressed doubt that the Ramstein event -- an annual fixture since 1955 -- would ever be held again.
In Britain authorities decided to go ahead with this week's Farnborough air show despite calls for cancellation of the biennial display, one of the world's biggest. British officials said they were confident their safety rules would prevent an accident like the one at Ramstein. France too will proceed with scheduled shows because its rules, according to an air force statement, "are very rigorous." Spanish officials said they were "studying" whether to cancel a joint Spanish-American aerial display in Zaragoza next month, but it will probably go on.