$120,000 Flight of General, Pet Cat, Probed

WASHINGTON — Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ashy, new leader of the U.S. Space Command, traveled on an Air Force C-141 transport jet from Italy to Colorado at an estimated cost of at least $120,000, taking along one aide and the Ashy family cat. He could have taken a commercial flight the next day.

After a complaint from Capitol Hill, Defense Department Acting Inspector General Derek J. Vander Schaaf has agreed this week to investigate the propriety of the Sept. 9 flight on a 200-passenger plane specially equipped with a luxury cabin and carrying a steward on its crew of 13.

Ashy, who followed Pentagon regulations by paying an $85 fare for the cat, declined to comment. A spokesman at the Space Command in Colorado Springs said Ashy and his aide considered taking a commercial flight Sept. 10, but worried the schedule wouldn’t give him enough time to take a training course in Colorado the next day.

Air Force officials said no regulations were broken.