AIRCRAFT in Milano Linate

Milan Linate, 08/10/2001, a morning like any others, one normal and foggy gray autumn day. People always busy in check-in areas trying to register themselves and to on board baggages keeping in the heart and mind the disaster happened few days before in the american “Big Apple” where thousand people died (both civil people and rescuers). Between all these travellers there was a group of people directed to Copenaghen. They were sat on a plane ready to take off, and they were not aware of the terrible destiny that was waiting for them. All things are ready to take off: the plane went on the accelerating way, engines are powered to theire maximum power, the plane starts to move, moving directly to its passengers and fly assistants’s death. The airline plane pilot was running at very high speed when he saw a small private plane coming from a small way on his left side.

The impact was extremely violent and unavoidable exactly as the catastrophic event that was going to happen: the pilot of the plane turned rapidly on its right side in order to avoid the big impact but he failed and he crushed with the baggage deposit area causing the immediate destruction and a violent explosion. Very few alive left. People present during the impact confirm that it was possible to hear suffering screams coming from the burning plane. One of the baggage deposit buildings closed to the impact area was immediately dedicated as collecting victim zone in order to allow people coming from various european places to recognize their relatives. In the high number of victims it was possible to remember two just married girl and boy not far from Monza: they decided to renounce to their honeymoon in Egypt few days before in order to avoid problems in the airports related to the critical actual international situation.

A terroristic attack was the first tremendous suspect immediately cancelled after the first checks. Fog was the second valid idea but people and controllers present during the impact sustain that visibility was not so bad, at least it could not be the cause for such an accident. The human error is the last remaining cause to be investigated, even if it is very hard to accept it, if the two pilots’s long flying experience is taken into account. To complete the accident background there was the functional problem related to a floor radar that was in repairing since years and recovering was never completed. The radar would have permitted the small plane localization if functioning: in this case the stop allert could have been ordered, avoiding the “little fly” the tremendous impact with the giant as said by news papers the days after. Investigation is still on going but, independently on its final results, none will be able to give back to the 118 victims and to their relatives the smile cutted in such a fast way.

I was completely worried by this accident because we were in a very difficult moment like the remaining part of people in the world due to the not easy international situation. “Fortunately” the fact was not related to terrorism even if it must not be considered a good news. Maybe now we will assist to processes and accuses that must be completed in order to “assure” the real cause of the problem or, maybe, only to complete remove any kind of responsibility... but who will be able to recover the most important and hugest bad result coming from this accident???

 written by Calò Elena  (e-mail  free6@itcgbianchi.mi.it)