The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, yesterday said that "tragic recklessness" had caused the deaths of 20 holidaymakers in a cable car in the Dolomite mountains when a low-flying US warplane hit overhead wires.
"It was a terrible act. It [the plane] was flying virtually at ground level, Mr Prodi told reporters as he visited the north-east Italian ski town of Cavalese.
Outraged politicians asked why the US Marines surveillance plane was flying at an estimated height of 100 metres off the ground in an area well documented on maps as a ski resort.
Some left-wing politicians questioned the presence of US military bases in Italy. "We are obviously not masters of our own territory," the president of Rifondazione Communista, Mr Armando Cossutta, said. "American bases have to be closed once and for all on our soil."
The holidaymakers were killed on Tuesday when their cable car crashed 200 metres on to a mountainside near Cavalese, 50 km north of Trento in the Dolomites.
Officials revised the nationality of the victims yesterday, issuing a fresh list of seven Germans, five Belgians, three Italians, two Austrians, a Dutch woman, a Polish woman and her 13-year-old son.
Pope John Paul was filled with "pain and preoccupation over the accident", the Vatican said.
The Italian Defence Minister, Mr Beniamino Andreatta, said the plane was contravening flying rules during its training mission.
"There was a clear violation of the rules governing this type of exercise," Mr Andreatta, who accompanied Mr Prodi on the visit. "There is clear responsibility on the part of the pilot."
Mr Andreatta said the EA-6B Grumman Prowler, a four-man surveillance aircraft, was a plane intended to fly at high altitudes in order to jam radar communications. "There is no reason for a plane of this type to be on a low-flying mission," he said.
Mr Prodi said he had been assured by President Clinton in a telephone conversation that the tragedy would be fully investigated and would not recur. Mr Clinton also said Italy would be fully involved in the investigation. The Trento prosecutor, Mr Bruno Giardino, heading a manslaughter inquiry, was due to question the four-man crew of the plane, which is impounded.
Eyewitnesses said the plane snagged its tail on the cable but managed to fly back to Aviano. "The plane made a manoeuvre to the left. . . It seems to me the pilot was certainly having some difficulties because I'd never seen anything like it before," said one.
President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who had issued an usually strongly-worded statement calling for a swift and thorough inquiry into the tragedy, said yesterday he hoped the accident would not turn out to be a game gone wrong.
Newspaper commentaries also expressed indignation at the tragedy: "These `Rambos' use our mountains as operation zones. . . Who do they think they are?" asked Turin's La Stampa newspaper.