1998 Cavalese cable car crash
United States Marine Corps Grumman EA-6B Prowler · Controlled flight into obstacle caused by pilot error
From Aviano Air Base (AVB) to Aviano Air Base (AVB)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 20 · all aircraft and ground (occupants minus survivors)
- Ground fatalities
- 20
- Occupants
- 4
- Survivors
- 4
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Grumman EA-6B Prowler
- Aircraft type
- Grumman EA-6
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 163045
- Operator
- United States Marine Corps
- Onboard fatalities
- 0 (occupants minus survivors)
- Route
- From Aviano Air Base (AVB)To Aviano Air Base (AVB)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Cavalese cable car crash, also known as Strage del Cermis, occurred on 3 February 1998, near the Italian town of Cavalese, a ski resort in the Dolomites some 25 mi northeast of Trento. Twenty people were killed when a United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft, flying too low and too fast, against regulations, cut a cable supporting a cable car of an aerial lift.
The pilot, Captain Richard J. Ashby, and his navigator, Captain Joseph Schweitzer, were put on trial in the United States and found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide. Later they were found guilty of obstruction of justice and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman for having destroyed a videotape recorded from the plane, and were dismissed from the Marine Corps. The disaster, and the subsequent acquittal of the pilots, strained relations between the U.S. and Italy.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1998 Cavalese cable car crash” (revision 1368302901, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1998 Cavalese cable car crash
- Revision
- 1368302901 · 2026-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q1865863
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1998 Cavalese cable car crash" (page 554415, revision 1368302901)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities plus ground fatalities (aircraft occupants minus survivors)
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.