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AMERICAN PLANE HITS CABLEWAY
Plane flying at 100 metres kills 20
The American EA-6B Prowler warplane set off from the Aviano NATO military base at 2 p.m. At 3.18 p.m. the sirens wailed in the Fiemme Valley. The 3,600 inhabitants of Cavalese, a ski resort in the Dolomites, thought there must have been a fire; the truth was far worse. The plane, flying extremely low, had passed beneath a cable of the Cermis cableway, clipping it with its tail and cutting right through it. The cable car fell 100 metres and smashed to the ground. Most of the twenty people killed were foreign holidaymakers. The plane managed to return to base.
Local inhabitants, who have been protesting for a long time against low-flying American aircraft, say that this was "a tragedy waiting to happen".
Prime Minister Romano Prodi has spoken on the telephone with US President Clinton. According to a press release from the Prime Minister's office, Clinton "guaranteed that the Italian authorities will be fully involved in the investigation to determine out who was responsible for the accident, and undertook to ensure that such disasters can never happen again in future".
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