Partial thread jack...
My ignorance aside, but what happened with the crew (possibley EA-6B) that clipped a ski lift cable in Europe a couple years back unfortunately resulting in loss of life?
I don't enjoy hearing about the possibility of a rush to "justice" in foreign countries, especially with regards to Americans. My hopes that the facts, and justice come out on your friends side.
That crew was cut loose by the Marines from the moment they got on the ground. They were handed over to the Italians early on with no representation and no help from the US. They had to call a American lawyer in Rome to get help......
One of the back-seaters was in VT-86 when I went through and he gave a 2-3 hour brief at a safety stand-down and I talked to him a few times after debriefing a flight. It was a pretty charged brief at the stand-down, you could tell it still weighed on him heavily. He was very blunt how the Marines left them out to dry in the beginning. He said it was a big eye-opener, he was a little cynical about it. One thing that he mentioned was that during the court-martial proceedings (they eventually dropped the charges against him and the other back-seater) they introduced into evidence every single grade sheet of his from flight school, with all of his
Belows' tabbed and a tally of what they were for
.
One of the most suprising things was that there was never a mishap investigation. The Safety Center sent at least one of their staff out there to do the investigation. When he got there the MAW CG told him that he was to turn over all the investigation results/notes/findings to him at the end to be used as evidence in the court-martials. When the Safety Center guy balked and told him no, he was left hanging and eventually went home without doing the investigation.
By the way, the pictures of the Prowler were nothing short of jaw-dropping.....Grumman Ironworks lived up its name.