The Air Force announced Thursday that it will dismiss all criminal charges against a U.S. fighter pilot who accidentally dropped a 500-pound, laser-guided bomb that killed four Canadians in Afghanistan in 2002.
Maj. Harry Schmidt has accepted an offer to face administrative punishment in exchange for dismissal of four counts of dereliction of duty, the Air Force said.
Schmidt originally was charged with manslaughter and aggravated assault. Military officials recommended the charges be dismissed and that Schmidt face possible administrative punishment instead.
Schmidt turned down the offer, saying he wanted to clear his name in a court-martial instead. He was ordered to be tried on the lesser charge of dereliction of duty.
Administrative punishment to be decided soon
The Air Force said the criminal charges would be dismissed after the conclusion of administrative punishment proceedings, which will begin immediately.
A call to Schmidt's lawyer, Charles W. Gittins, was not immediately returned.
Schmidt was charged for dropping a laser-guided, 500-pound bomb from his fighter jet on April 17, 2002 near Kandahar, killing four and wounding eight Canadian soldiers who were conducting live-fire exercises. Schmidt later said he released the bomb because he mistook the Canadians' gunfire for an attack from Taliban soldiers.
A military investigation found that Schmidt should have flown out of the area instead.
Schmidt, 37, has maintained he did nothing wrong, saying the Air Force gave him no warning that allies would be performing exercises that night.
The bombing near Kandahar killed Sgt. Marc Leger, Pvt. Richard Green, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer and Pvt. Nathan Smith and wounded eight other Canadians. They were the first Canadians to die in combat since the Korean War.
Case closely watched in Canada
The case against the two U.S. pilots has been closely watched in Canada, where many were outraged by the bombing and the two days it took President Bush to publicly apologize.
Relatives of the Canadian soldiers were disappointed last June, when Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the 8th Air Force, first offered to dismiss the manslaughter charges and impose administrative punishment instead.
At an administrative hearing, Carlson would have considered allegations that Schmidt failed to ensure that the troops he attacked were not allies and did not obey when air controllers told him to "stand by" before he dropped the bomb.
Carlson also recommended that a flying evaluation board determine whether Schmidt should be allowed to fly for the Air Force again.
Schmidt had transferred to the National Guard in 2000 after a decorated career as a Navy pilot and an instructor at the Navy's "Top Gun" fighter pilot school.