|
|
|
|
|
Itavia Flight 870Itavia Flight 870 was a regularly scheduled flight from Guglielmo Marconi Airport in Bologna, Italy to Palermo International Airport in Palermo, Italy. The flight departed with 2 hours of delay at 20:08 CET on June 27, 1980. At the controls of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15 that evening were Captain Domenico Gatti and First Officer Enzo Fontana. The aircraft (registered I-TIGI), which left Guglielmo Marconi Airport bound for Palermo International Airport, crashed at 20:59 CET into the Tyrrhenian Sea near the island of Ustica, about 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Naples. All 81 people on board were killed (2 flight crew members, 2 flight attendants, and 77 passengers). Unofficial explanation There is still no official final report regarding the disaster. The Italian media have labelled the crash of the now-defunct Itavia airline as one of the biggest cover-ups in italian history. Major sources in the Italian media have reported over the years that the DC-9-15 was shot down in a dogfight involving Libyan, U.S., French and Italian Air Force fighters in an attempted assassination by NATO members on Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi who was flying in the same airspace that evening. The media also reported that radar monitoring released in 1997 by NATO showed that at least seven fighter aircraft were in the vicinity when the jet plunged into the sea off the island of Ustica. They said the radar showed one or two Libyan MiG-23 had tried to evade detection by flying close to the airliner. Three Italian Air Force F-104s, one U.S. Navy A-7 Corsair II and a French fighter pursued the Libyan MiG-23 and a battle ensued, according to the reports. Former Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who comes from the central city of Bologna from where the DC-9 took off, told reporters in a 1997 interview that his government "had done its duty and nothing more" in seeking to clarify the June 27, 1980 disaster. The centre-left government, voted into power in 1996, made a fresh appeal in 1997 to the former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana to release data that could help throw fresh light on the case. Daria Bonfietti, a senator who is also president of the victims families association, said the reports strengthened a hypothesis her group had always held. "It seems to me to strengthen the hypothesis of a war scenario that we have always upheld and definitely calls into question the fabrication that the Italian Air Force has knowingly sustained through all these years," she said. She accused the air force and former political establishment of a deliberate and prolonged cover-up. In recent years the prosecution for the case has accused four Italian Air Force high rank officials (Lamberto Bartolucci, Franco Ferri, Corrado Melillo and Zeno Tascio) and other officials of several charges including abuse of office for allegedly making misleading, incomplete statements and high treason. Judge Rosario Priore, one of Italy's most respected judges and an expert on terrorism cases, wrote in his indictment that all radar evidence indicated the airliner was hit by a missile or plunged into the sea after swerving to avoid an accident. In his indictment, Priore said the nine, eight of them serving or past members of the military or the military secret services, should stand trial on charges including high treason and giving false testimony. But Priore, according to excerpts of the 5,468 page indictment carried by Italian media, said those who actually may have caused the crash remained unknown, so he could not charge anyone with the crime of massacre. Flight 870 "absolutely was not alone, neither was the sky during its flight path totally empty for a range of 50 miles" (80 km) Priore wrote in the long indictment. The judge concluded that the other aircraft near the plane must have been military, since no other civilian plane was flying that route at the time. According to the judge, a military aircraft darted into the flight path of the DC-9 just as the jetliner was flying by. Priore theorized that the fighter might have tried to take cover from an attack by flying parallel to the commercial craft. The indictment accused the generals of failing to inform the government and judicial authorities of the possibility that there had been military activity in the area where the plane crashed into the sea, killing all on board. On April 30, 2004 Lamberto Bartolucci, Franco Ferri, Zeno Tascio and Corrado Melillo, former Italian Air Force officials, where all acquitted from charges, however the Court of Assise pointed out that misconduct did occur during the aftermath of the disaster and that they are positive that this turning point will lead to new investigations. Alternate theories There are many conspiracy theories surrounding this event. The terrorist theory was the first to be mentioned, especially due to the fact that the accident happened one month before the Bologna Central Station terrorist attack, the worse act of terrorism on Italian soil in its history, in the same city where Flight 870 departed. A report released in 1994 stated new evidence pointed to an IED placed inside the rear lavatory of the aircraft. See also External links
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|