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TRENTO, Italy (AP) - A U.S.
military plane on a low-level training
flight over the snowy Alps Tuesday
sliced through a cable-car line, send
ing a gondola full of skiers crashing
hundreds of feet to the ground.
At least 20 people inside the car
died.
The car was flattened by the 240
to-300-foot drop. It “opened up like a
cardboard box,” one police official
said, and bodies were in pieces.
Officials at the U.S. air base in
Aviano in northern Italy, where the
Marine EA-6B Prowler was based,
said all low-level missions by U.S.
military aircraft in Italy have been
suspended.
President Clinton, on a visit to
New Mexico, issued a statement say
ing he was “deeply saddened” by the
accident and that the United States
will cooperate fully with the Italian
government to find out what hap
pened.
The pilot and his three-member
crew returned safely to Aviano, 60
miles east of the resort, said Brig.
Gen. Tun Peppe, commander of die
base’s resident 31st fighter wing. The
plane sustained minor tail damage.
Peppe, speaking at a news confer
ence at Aviano, did not speculate on a
cause, though he discounted engine
trouble.
In Washington, U.S. Defense
Secretary William Cohen told the
Senate Aimed Services Committee
that the pilot “was apparently
unaware that he had struck a cable or
injured anyone.”
Base officials said American
pilots fly dozens of training missions
over Italy every day. The plane is a
surveillance aircraft attached to the
NATO force overseeing the Bosnian
peace.
The accident occurred at 3:15
p.m. local time under sunny skies at a
ski resort in the Val di Fassa area of
the Dolomite Mountains near Trento.
The cable car was traveling from the
town of Cavalese, 80 miles northeast
of Trento, to die top of Cermis moun
tain, site of a popular local ski resort
The cabin had just begun its
ascent from the base at Cavalese, at
an altitude of about 3,000 feet, and
was heading toward a mid-station
when it fell, said Alessia Dezugliana,
an employee of the Alpe Cermis ski
area. ~
“You couldn’t guess the shape of
the car anymore,” said Andrea Russo,
a police official who arrived at the
scene an hour after the accident
“All the four walls of the car had
opened up like a cardboard box. The
bodies were all laying beneath the
sheet metals. Most of diem were tom
apart,” he said.
One of the victims was the car’s
Italian operator. The rest were skiers,
at least six of them German, said
police Officer Robert Cavada in
Cavalese. RAI said two victims were
Hungarian, and two were Poles.
The scene was near the spot
where a 1976 accident on the same
gondola lift killed 42 people. The
accident was blamed on operator
error.
“Compared to the 1976 accident,
this was even worse,” Russo said. “Then
you could at least see the dead bodies.
Now, they were all tom apart”
The pilot was remaining on the
base, said spokeswoman Capt. Tracy
O’Grady-Walsh.
“It’s definitely fair to say he is
concerned for all the families ...
involved in this,” she said. “I’m sure
if he had the opportunity he would
express his deepest sympathy for
diem.”
President Clinton expressed his
sympathies to the victims’ relatives
and friends.
“I have expressed my condo
lences to Prime Minister Prodi and
assured him that we will cooperate
fully with the Italian government and
do everything we canto find out what
happened and prevent an accident
like this from happening again,”
Clinton said in his statement.
The accident drew an immediate
political response in Italy.
The Communist Refoundation
party, which traditionally opposes die
American military presence and sup
plies the government a majority in
Parliament, renewed its call to close
the Aviano base. Other leftists parties
demanded an end to U.S. military
flights over inhabited areas, and pun
ishment for the pilot
Aviano, about 62 miles east of die
accident scene, is die largest US. air
base in Italy, with nearly 6,000 mili
tary and civilian personnel. It has
played a major role in NATO inter
vention efforts in Bosnia and has
hosted President Clinton for several
visits to U.S. military personnel.
■ The Omaha police
officer charged will appear
in court Thursday.
OMAHA (AP) - The police
officer charged with manslaugh
ter in the shooting of an Omaha
man is expected to appear in
court Thursday for his arraign
ment.
Douglas County District
Judge Robert Burkhard ruled last
week that Todd Sears could
remain out of jail until his trial
without posting bail.
Sears, 32, was indicted by a
Douglas County grand jury in the
Oct. 26 death of Marvin
Ammons, a veteran of the Persian
Gulf War who was drunk the
night he was shot.
On Tuesday, his younger
brother, Travis Sears, read from a
statement at Omaha Police Union
headquarters, thanking those
who supported his brother.
“This is not just about Todd
Sears,” Travis Sears said. “This
involves all of our law enforce
ment officers, and it is time we
as a community stand up and
support and thank them for the
difficult and dangerous job they
perform in our society on a daily
basis.”
At least two families are suf
fering as a result of the Oct. 26
shooting, said Travis Sears, who
works for the Nebraska
Department of Roads. Another
brother, Preston Sears, also is an
Omaha police officer.
While the Sears family con
tinued to cope, “our hearts go out
to the Ammons family,” he said.
Sears’ indictment was the
first indictment of an officer on a
felony since the state law requir
ing grand jury investigations
took effect 10 years ago.
Editor Paula Lavigne
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THE DALY NEBRASKAN
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Egypt
said Tuesday that “all the options
are still on the table” in dealing
with Iraq’s defiance of U.N.
weapons inspections, but stopped
short of endorsing a military attack
as a last resort
Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright met with Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak at the
end of a six-day round of diploma
cy aimed at gaining Arab support
for a U.S. attack if Iraq’s President
Saddam Hussein refuses to permit
unfettered inspections of its
weapons sites.
Mubarak, who has spoken to
more than a dozen Arab leaders in
the last few days, sent his foreign
minister, Amr Moussa, to a joint
news conference with Albright and
remained inside his presidential
palace.
“All the options are still on the
table,” Moussa said. A senior
aHmitiiitratinn nfPiAial tnl/4
reporters this meant Egypt had
joined Saudi Arabia and Jordan in
firmly backing the Clinton admin
istration.
Moussa emphasized his desire
for the use of diplomacy to per
suade Saddam to adhere to U.N.
Security Council resolutions
designed to strip Iraq of dangerous
weapons.
Albright said she remained
skeptical of diplomacy succeeding.
Before boarding a U.S. Air
Force jet for a 14-hour flight home,
Albright said the Iraqi president
was using “feint, parries and
Mocks” to prolong the impasse.
The United States has no quar
rel with the people of Iraq and “we
do not wish to see women and chil
dren used as human shields,” she
said
But she said time for diplomacy
is running out and the United
States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and the
Palestinian Authority all agreed:
“This crisis was created by Saddam
«———
We believe we have all the
cooperation we need across
the board."
Madeleine Albright
secretary of state
Hussein’s defiance of die Security
Council”
Moussa explained Mubarak’s
absence as due to a busy schedule,
including a meeting with the presi
dent of Panama. Albright told
reporters she did not feel slighted.
A senior U.S. official, speaking
on condition of anonymity, said die
Egyptian-statement that all options
were on the table was welcomed by
Albright as a sign of support
Bahrain backed the United
States in warning Iraq of "grave
consequences” if it fails to heed
U.N. demands that it open suspect
nwapi/us aiivd iu uuwuuuuiuuai
inspection. A day earlier, Saudi
Arabia said Iraq bears responsibili
ty if diplomacy fails to end the
inspection impasse. But the Saudis
stopped short of granting U.S. war
planes use of their air bases for
possible strikes against Iraq.
Balaam, the Persian Gulf emi
rate where die U.S. 5th Fleet main
tains its central command, appar
ently pledged its military support
in die event of an attack on Iraq.
“We believe we have all the
cooperation we need across the
board,” Albright mid after meeting
with die emir, Sheik Isa bin Salman
A1 Khalifa.
In Bahrain, Albright dismissed
as “diversionary” an overture by
Iraq through Russia to open some
presidential sites to U N. inspec
tors.
While she did not object to Ra
ther diplomatic efforts by Russia or
any other nation, she stressed that
“it’s die message that counts” and
the message should be insistence
on total compliance with the
United Nations.
State Department spokesman
James P. Rubin also rejected as
“another diversionary tactic” an
offer by Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein to meet with a U.S. con
gressional delegation.
In Washington, Sen. John
McCain of Arizona, a senior
Republican on the Senate Armed
Services Committee, said today a
U.S. strike appears to be inevitable.
“It’s not absolutely certain we’re
going to go,” McCain said on
ABC’s “Good Momine America.”
“But I think the series of events
that are transpiring will lead us to
that action unless there is some
thing that happens within the next
few days to a couple of weeks.”
McCain said a U.S. attack, if it
comes, “has to be severe, has to be
sustained and has to be signifi
cant”
Bahrain’s foreign minister,
Sheik Mohammed bin Mubarak A1
Khalifa, agreed that Iraq must
“give access to the inspectors of
the U.N. special commission” or
face “grave consequences.”
Bahrain is the nerve centerof a
powerful armada sent during the
Gulf crisis, and the U.S. Navy has
had a presence here for 50 years.
There are two U S. carriers and
more than 300 warplanes in the