Story ID: 
Italian Pilots Cleared
By: Andrew Healey
Caption: An Italian military tribunal has thrown out cowardice charges against four pilots who refused to fly in Iraq because of the poor state of their helicopters
Word Count: 138
An Italian military tribunal has thrown out cowardice charges against four pilots who refused to fly in Iraq because of the poor state of their helicopters. The four pilots served in Iraq last year but, after flying just one mission, refused to take to the air again, saying their helicopters did not have adequate anti-missile protection. The army said the helicopters were safe and accused the pilots of cowardice. But the tribunal said last month that the men had no case to answer, indicating that their concerns were justified. “We showed that they didn’t act out of fear, but out of professionalism, having demonstrated that there were technical failings with their aircraft,” said defense lawyer Franco Coppi. The pilots had complained that their helicopters were equipped only with manual anti-missile systems, rather than faster automatic protection devices.