Rome - A US Marine Corps pilot was quoted yesterday as saying he had been flying off-route but corrected his course and thought he was at a legal altitude when his plane hit cable car wires in the Dolomites, killing 20 people.
Il Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted pilot Richard Ashby (30), as saying the cables "just suddenly sprang up in front of our eyes". It also quoted him as saying his altitude meter had not been working properly, but the crew had not realised.