The soloist for the Italian air force stunt team caused the fatal crash at the West German air show when he arrived too low and too soon at the point where the jets intersected, his commander said Tuesday. Lt. Col. Diego Raineri spoke to reporters shortly before the remains of the three pilots killed in the crash Sunday at Ramstein, West Germany, arrived at the airport. About 2,000 people were at the airport when the bodies arrived. Defense Minister Valerio Zanone will attend the funeral Wednesday for the pilots identified as Lt. Col. Mario Naldini, 38; the soloist, Lt. Col. Ivo Nutarelli, 41; and Capt. Giorgio Alessio, 31, who was the youngest member of the team. ``It is easy enough to tell what happened,'' said Ranieri, who as commader was coordinating the team's manuevers by radio from the ground at the time of the collision that sent one plane hurtling into the crowd. ``The first section of the formation flew in one direction and the soloist came in from 90 degrees, colliding with two planes,'' he said. Two of the three other planes in that group were damaged, he said. ``I was the only one (team member) to see the tragedy, but I don't understand what happened. The soloist came in early on the rest of the formation and at the same altitude,'' Ranieri said. ``The other section, composed of four planes, did not know what happened until the end of the manuever when the pilots saw the wreckage and the smoke on the runway,'' he said. Some Italian politicans called for a parliamentary investigation of the crash, called for the resignation of the defense minister and the Air Force commander, and criticized the Defense Ministry's decision to allow the team to continue its performances this year. ``The decision of the Defense Ministry to continue the next exhibitions of the national aerobatic team seems like an offense in front of the victims, the hundreds of injured at Ramstein and the pilots that died in the accident,'' said Greens party Deputies Rosa Filippini and Giancarlo Salvoldi. The two said they would demand an urgent meeting of the Chamber of Deputies to debate the tragedy. Deputy Flaminio Piccoli, a member of the dominant Christian Democrats and the president of the chamber's foreign committee, criticized the risks ``to the lives of the exceptional pilots and to the lives of the citizens and spectators'' and said it was necessary for the government and Parliament to investigate the tragedy. The organizers of an air show Satuday in Fribourg, Switzerland, announced they have asked the Italian team to withdraw because of the accident at Ramstein. They said the request was to show respect for the dead pilots and because the crash investigation is still underway. Also on Tuesday, organizers canceled a Sept. 11 air show in Venice. Ranieri, during his impromptu news conference, defended the decision to continue performances by the team this year. ``An experience like Ramstein cannot be erased from the memory, but the motivation to do our work has not changed very much,'' he said. ``The time to reconstruct the unit decimated by the accident will be months, probably years. We were the best in the world.''
