CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- A Marine navigator whose jet cut a ski gondola cable in Italy last year agreed to plead guilty to obstruction and conspiracy charges, a Marine spokesman said Monday.
Capt. Joseph Schweitzer was expected to enter the plea at a hearing Monday afternoon at Camp Lejeune, said Capt. Steve Butler with Marine Corps Forces Atlantic at Norfolk, Va.Schweitzer was accused of destroying a videotape that he shot before his radar-jamming EA-6B Prowler hit the gondola cable during a low-level training flight in February 1998. All 20 people inside the gondola were killed.
The court-martial of Schweitzer, 31, of Westbury, N.Y., had been scheduled to begin late last week with jury selection. But legal maneuvers and discussions between government lawyers and Schweitzer's defense team delayed it.
"They've been meeting for the past week on this," his attorney said. "That's why the jury process has been delayed."
A military jury at Camp Lejeune acquitted the jet's pilot, Capt. Richard Ashby, 31, of Mission Viejo, Calif., of manslaughter and other charges on March 4.
Manslaughter counts against Schweitzer were dismissed after the acquittal. But Schweitzer and Ashby both faced the obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges because of the videotape's disappearance.
A sentence for Schweitzer was not immediately clear Monday morning. Each charge carries a maximum five-year sentence. Carter said details would come out at the hearing this afternoon.
Ashby testified during his trial that Schweitzer filmed the early part of their training flight. After they landed, he gave the tape to Schweitzer and never saw it again, Ashby testified.
Two rear-seat crew members were charged in the accident but those charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.
When the jet hit the cable on Feb. 3, 1998, his squadron was deployed from the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point to the NATO air base at Aviano, Italy, for duty over Bosnia. Afterward, Italians demanded that U.S. landing rights be revoked at bases in their country.
The Prowler, which carries one missile, is filled with radar-jamming equipment and is designed to keep friendly bombers and fighters from being detected by enemy radar.