Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870
Encyclopedia
Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870, also known in the Italian media as the Ustica Massacre ("Strage di Ustica"), was an Italian flight which crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea
while en route from Bologna
, Italy
, to Palermo
, Italy
, in 1980. The crash has been attributed to either a terrorist bomb or to an air-to-air missile
strike. It was a regularly scheduled flight from Guglielmo Marconi Airport in Bologna
to Palermo International Airport
in Palermo
. The flight departed 2 hours late at 20:08 CET
on 27 June 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 130 km southwest of Naples
. All 81 people on board were killed (2 flight crew members, 2 flight attendants, and 77 passengers).
Two Italian Air Force
F-104s
were scrambled at 21:00 CET
from Grosseto Air Force Base to locate the accident area and to spot any survivors, but they failed because of bad visibility. In July 2006 the re-assembled fragments of the DC-9
aircraft were returned to Bologna
from Pratica di Mare Air Force Base
near Rome
. On 23 June 2008, Italy announced that they have reopened the case of Flight 870.
. In 1989 the Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism, headed by Senator Giovanni Pellegrino
, issued an official statement concerning the disappearance of Flight 870, which thus became known as the "Ustica Massacre" (Strage di Ustica).
The definitive sentence asserted:
The perpetrators of the crime remain unidentified. The court, unable to proceed further, declared the case archived.
In June 2008, Rome prosecutors reopened the investigation into the crash after former Italian President Francesco Cossiga
said that the aircraft had been shot down by French warplanes.
On July 7, 2008 a claim for damages was served to the French President.
personnel in the tragedy is unclear. Several of them have been investigated and brought to court for a number of offenses, including falsification of documents, perjury, abuse of office, and aiding and abetting. Four generals were charged with high treason
, on the allegations that they obstructed government investigation of the accident by withholding information about air traffic at the time of Ustica disaster.
The first ruling, April 30, 2004, pronounced two of the generals, Corrado Melillo and Zeno Tascio, not guilty of high treason. Lesser charges against a number of other military personnel were also dropped. The abuse of office charge was no longer valid, due to some changes in legislation, and the other allegations could not be pursued further due to the statute of limitations
, as the events in question had occurred more than 15 years prior.
For this same reason, action could not be taken against the other two generals, Lamberto Bartolucci and Franco Ferri. However, the ruling did not acquit them, and they were still alleged to be guilty of treason. Dissatisfied, they appealed, and in 2005 the appeals court ruled that the accusations were made on insufficient grounds. On January 10, 2007, the Italian Court of Cassation
upheld this ruling and conclusively closed the case, fully acquitting Bartolucci and Ferri of any wrongdoing.
In June 2010, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano
urged all Italian authorities to cooperate in the investigation of the incident.
In September 2011 the Palermo civil tribunal ordered the Italian government to pay 100 million euros ($137 million) in civil damages to the relatives of the victims for failure to protect the flight and for concealing the truth and destroying evidence.
recordings, including radar images and trails of debris; particularly, trails of objects moving at high speeds.
, which would have had to have come from an anti-aircraft missile.
n, U.S.
, French
and Italian
Air Force fighters in an assassination attempt by NATO members on an important Libyan politician, maybe even the leader Muammar al-Gaddafi
, who was flying in the same airspace that evening. Gaddafi
denied being in the area of the accident that evening. This version was supported in particular by investigative magistrate Rosario Priore in 1999. Judge Priore said in his concluding report that his investigation had been deliberately obstructed by the Italian military and members of the secret service, in compliance with NATO requests.
The media also reported that radar monitoring records 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
. According to these sources, the radar shows that 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.
On July 18, 1980, 21 days after the crash, a Libyan MiG-23 crashed on the Sila Mountains in Castelsilano
, Calabria
, southern Italy
, according to eye witnesses and official reports. Media rumors reported that the plane may actually only have been discovered at that time, and that the pilot's body was decomposed; this gave rise to allegations that the MiG-23 may have been shot down at the time of the Flight 870 incident.
According to the Italian media, documents from the archives of the Libyan secret service passed on to Human Rights Watch
after the fall of Tripoli
, show that Flight 870 and the Libyan MIG were attacked by two French jets.
Several radar reports were erased and several Italian generals were indicted 20 years later for obstruction of justice. The difficulty the investigators and the victims' relatives had in receiving complete, reliable information on the Ustica disaster has been popularly described as un muro di gomma (literally, a rubber wall), because investigations just seemed to "bounce back".
Some of the Italian Air Force officials who might have known about the disaster's background died suddenly.
In Bologna
on June 27, 2007 the Museum for the Memory of Ustica was opened. The museum is in possession of parts of the plane, which are assembled and on display.
Almost all of the external fuselage of the plane was reconstructed. In the museum there are also objects belonging to those on board that were found in the sea near the plane.
Christian Boltanski
was commissioned to produce a site specific installation.
The installation consists of:
Each loudspeaker describes a simple thought/worry (e.g. "when I arrive I will go to the sea")
All the objects found are contained in a wooden box covered with a black plastic skin.
A small book with the photos of all objects and various information is available to the visitor upon request.
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....
while en route from Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, to Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, in 1980. The crash has been attributed to either a terrorist bomb or to an air-to-air missile
Air-to-air missile
An air-to-air missile is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft. AAMs are typically powered by one or more rocket motors, usually solid fuelled but sometimes liquid fuelled...
strike. It was a regularly scheduled flight from Guglielmo Marconi Airport in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
to Palermo International Airport
Palermo International Airport
-The Company:GESAP S.p.a. is the airport management company of "Falcone e Borsellino" Airport in Palermo. It has a fully paid-up share capital of € 15,912,332.00 divided between the Regional Province of Palermo, the Comune of Palermo, the Chamber of Commerce, the Comune of Cinisi and other minor...
in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
. The flight departed 2 hours late at 20:08 CET
Central European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
on 27 June 1980. At the controls of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15
McDonnell Douglas DC-9
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is a twin-engine, single-aisle jet airliner. It was first manufactured in 1965 with its maiden flight later that year. The DC-9 was designed for frequent, short flights. The final DC-9 was delivered in October 1982.The DC-9 was followed in subsequent modified forms by...
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
Palermo International Airport
-The Company:GESAP S.p.a. is the airport management company of "Falcone e Borsellino" Airport in Palermo. It has a fully paid-up share capital of € 15,912,332.00 divided between the Regional Province of Palermo, the Comune of Palermo, the Chamber of Commerce, the Comune of Cinisi and other minor...
, crashed at 20:59 CET
Central European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
into the Tyrrhenian Sea
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....
near the island of Ustica
Ustica
Ustica is the name of a small island, about 9 km across, situated 52 km north of Capo Gallo, Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea...
about 130 km southwest of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. All 81 people on board were killed (2 flight crew members, 2 flight attendants, and 77 passengers).
Two Italian Air Force
Italian Air Force
The Italian Air Force has gone under different names in different periods:*Regia Aeronautica , from 1923 to June 1946*Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana, the air force of Italian Social Republic during World War II...
F-104s
F-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor aircraft originally developed for the United States Air Force by Lockheed. One of the Century Series of aircraft, it served with the USAF from 1958 until 1969, and continued with Air National Guard units...
were scrambled at 21:00 CET
Central European Time
Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...
from Grosseto Air Force Base to locate the accident area and to spot any survivors, but they failed because of bad visibility. In July 2006 the re-assembled fragments of the DC-9
McDonnell Douglas DC-9
The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is a twin-engine, single-aisle jet airliner. It was first manufactured in 1965 with its maiden flight later that year. The DC-9 was designed for frequent, short flights. The final DC-9 was delivered in October 1982.The DC-9 was followed in subsequent modified forms by...
aircraft were returned to Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
from Pratica di Mare Air Force Base
Pratica di Mare Air Force Base
Pratica di Mare Air Force Base is an Italian Air Force installation southwest of Rome, Italy. It was built in 1937, and in 1957 it was named after Colonnello Mario de Bernardi. It is the biggest Italian Air force base...
near Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. On 23 June 2008, Italy announced that they have reopened the case of Flight 870.
Official investigation
After years of investigations, no official explanation or final report has been provided by the Italian governmentPolitics of Italy
The politics of Italy is conducted through a parliamentary, democratic republic with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised collectively by the Council of Ministers, which is led by the President of the Council of Ministers, referred to as "Presidente del Consiglio" in Italian...
. In 1989 the Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism, headed by Senator Giovanni Pellegrino
Giovanni Pellegrino
Giovanni Pellegrino is an Italian politician.Born in Lecce and a lawyer by profession, he was a Senator of the Republic from 1990 with the Italian Communist Party and the Democrats of the Left to 2001...
, issued an official statement concerning the disappearance of Flight 870, which thus became known as the "Ustica Massacre" (Strage di Ustica).
The definitive sentence asserted:
- "(...) The DC9 incident occurred following a military interception action, the DC9 was shot down, the lives of 81 innocent citizens were destroyed by an action properly described as an act of war, real war undeclared, a covert international police action against our country, which violated its borders and rights. (...)"
- "(...) L'incidente al DC9 è occorso a seguito di azione militare di intercettamento, il DC9 è stato abbattuto, è stata spezzata la vita a 81 cittadini innocenti con un'azione, che è stata propriamente atto di guerra, guerra di fatto e non dichiarata, operazione di polizia internazionale coperta contro il nostro Paese, di cui sono stati violati i confini e i diritti. (...)"
The perpetrators of the crime remain unidentified. The court, unable to proceed further, declared the case archived.
In June 2008, Rome prosecutors reopened the investigation into the crash after former Italian President Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the eighth President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari....
said that the aircraft had been shot down by French warplanes.
On July 7, 2008 a claim for damages was served to the French President.
The "high treason" accusation against the Italian Air Force
The role of Italian Air ForceItalian Air Force
The Italian Air Force has gone under different names in different periods:*Regia Aeronautica , from 1923 to June 1946*Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana, the air force of Italian Social Republic during World War II...
personnel in the tragedy is unclear. Several of them have been investigated and brought to court for a number of offenses, including falsification of documents, perjury, abuse of office, and aiding and abetting. Four generals were charged with high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
, on the allegations that they obstructed government investigation of the accident by withholding information about air traffic at the time of Ustica disaster.
The first ruling, April 30, 2004, pronounced two of the generals, Corrado Melillo and Zeno Tascio, not guilty of high treason. Lesser charges against a number of other military personnel were also dropped. The abuse of office charge was no longer valid, due to some changes in legislation, and the other allegations could not be pursued further due to the statute of limitations
Statute of limitations
A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...
, as the events in question had occurred more than 15 years prior.
For this same reason, action could not be taken against the other two generals, Lamberto Bartolucci and Franco Ferri. However, the ruling did not acquit them, and they were still alleged to be guilty of treason. Dissatisfied, they appealed, and in 2005 the appeals court ruled that the accusations were made on insufficient grounds. On January 10, 2007, the Italian Court of Cassation
Court of Cassation (Italy)
The Supreme Court of Cassation is the major court of last resort in Italy. It has its seat in the Rome Hall of Justice.The Court of Cassation exists also to “ensure the observation and the correct interpretation of law” by ensuring the same application of law in the inferior and appeal courts...
upheld this ruling and conclusively closed the case, fully acquitting Bartolucci and Ferri of any wrongdoing.
In June 2010, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano is an Italian politician who has been the 11th President of Italy since 2006. A long-time member of the Italian Communist Party and later the Democrats of the Left, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992 to 1994 and as Minister of the Interior from 1996 to...
urged all Italian authorities to cooperate in the investigation of the incident.
In September 2011 the Palermo civil tribunal ordered the Italian government to pay 100 million euros ($137 million) in civil damages to the relatives of the victims for failure to protect the flight and for concealing the truth and destroying evidence.
Theories
Speculation at the time and in the years since has been fueled in part by media reports, military officials statements, and ATCAir traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
recordings, including radar images and trails of debris; particularly, trails of objects moving at high speeds.
A terrorist bomb
After the series of bombings which hit Italy in the 1970s, a terrorist act was quite naturally the first to be proposed. It must be considered that the flight was delayed outbound from Bologna by almost three hours, so apparently the timer would have been set to actually cause an explosion at Palermo airport, or on a further flight of the same plane.Missile strike during training exercise
This involves NATO forces accidentally downing the DC-9 during an international exercise involving Italian, U.S., and French jet fighters. Aviation Week and Space Technology reported that damage had been found consistent with a continuous-rod warheadContinuous-rod warhead
A continuous-rod warhead is a specialized munition that exhibits an annular blast fragmentation pattern. It is used in anti-aircraft and anti-missile missiles.-Early anti-aircraft munitions:...
, which would have had to have come from an anti-aircraft missile.
Missile strike during military operation
Major sources in the Italian media have alleged over the years that the aircraft was shot down during a dog fight involving LibyaLibya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
n, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Air Force fighters in an assassination attempt by NATO members on an important Libyan politician, maybe even the leader Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
, who was flying in the same airspace that evening. Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
denied being in the area of the accident that evening. This version was supported in particular by investigative magistrate Rosario Priore in 1999. Judge Priore said in his concluding report that his investigation had been deliberately obstructed by the Italian military and members of the secret service, in compliance with NATO requests.
The media also reported that radar monitoring records 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
Ustica
Ustica is the name of a small island, about 9 km across, situated 52 km north of Capo Gallo, Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea...
. According to these sources, the radar shows that one or two Libyan MiG-23
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is considered to belong to the Soviet third generation jet fighter category, along with similarly aged Soviet fighters such as the MiG-25 "Foxbat"...
had tried to evade detection by flying close to the airliner. Three Italian Air Force
Italian Air Force
The Italian Air Force has gone under different names in different periods:*Regia Aeronautica , from 1923 to June 1946*Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana, the air force of Italian Social Republic during World War II...
F-104S, one U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
A-7 Corsair II
A-7 Corsair II
The Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II is a carrier-based subsonic light attack aircraft introduced to replace the United States Navy's Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, initially entering service during the Vietnam War...
and a French fighter pursued the Libyan MiG-23 and a battle ensued.
On July 18, 1980, 21 days after the crash, a Libyan MiG-23 crashed on the Sila Mountains in Castelsilano
Castelsilano
Castelsilano is a comune and town with a population of 1273 people in the province of Crotone, in Calabria, Italy.-History:Castelsilano was founded in 1685 when Scipione Rota, Prince of Acherontia, decided on the construction of a fortified structure to rest during his long hunting expeditions and...
, Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
, southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, according to eye witnesses and official reports. Media rumors reported that the plane may actually only have been discovered at that time, and that the pilot's body was decomposed; this gave rise to allegations that the MiG-23 may have been shot down at the time of the Flight 870 incident.
According to the Italian media, documents from the archives of the Libyan secret service passed on to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
after the fall of Tripoli
Battle of Tripoli (2011)
The Battle of Tripoli was a military confrontation in Tripoli, Libya, between loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi, the longtime leader of Libya, and the National Transitional Council, which was attempting to overthrow Gaddafi and take control of the capital...
, show that Flight 870 and the Libyan MIG were attacked by two French jets.
Conspiracy theories
There are conspiracy theories surrounding this event, based on the series of events that followed the air crash. For example, the vessel that carried out the search for debris on the ocean floor was French, but only US officials had access to the aircraft parts they found.Several radar reports were erased and several Italian generals were indicted 20 years later for obstruction of justice. The difficulty the investigators and the victims' relatives had in receiving complete, reliable information on the Ustica disaster has been popularly described as un muro di gomma (literally, a rubber wall), because investigations just seemed to "bounce back".
Some of the Italian Air Force officials who might have known about the disaster's background died suddenly.
- August 3, 1980: Col. Pierangelo Teoldi, was nominated to become Commander of Grosseto AFB, but had not yet assumed command at the time of his death - car accident.
- May 9, 1981: Maurizio Gari, Poggio Ballone air defense radar controller - heart attackMyocardial infarctionMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
at age 37. - March 31, 1987: Mario Alberto Dettori, Poggio Ballone air defence radar controller - suicide by hangingHangingHanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
. - August 28, 1988: Mario Naldini and Ivo Nutarelli, Italian Air ForceItalian Air ForceThe Italian Air Force has gone under different names in different periods:*Regia Aeronautica , from 1923 to June 1946*Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana, the air force of Italian Social Republic during World War II...
- the pilots who crossed Flight 870's path on June 27 over Tuscany - mid air collision during the 1988 Ramstein Air ShowRamstein airshow disasterThe Ramstein airshow disaster is the second-deadliest airshow incident . It took place in front of about 300,000 people on August 28 1988, in Ramstein, West Germany, near the city of Kaiserslautern at the US Ramstein Air Base airshow Flugtag '88.Aircraft of the Italian Air Force display team...
. - February 1, 1991: Antonio Muzio, Lamezia TermeLamezia TermeLamezia Terme, commonly named Lamezia, is an Italian city of 71,287 inhabitants in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region.-Geography:...
control tower officer - murdered. - February 2, 1992: Antonio Pagliara, OtrantoOtrantoOtranto is a town and comune in the province of Lecce , in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses.It is located on the east coast of the Salento peninsula. The Strait of Otranto, to which the city gives its name, connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and Italy with Albania...
air defence radar controller - car accident. - December 21, 1995: Franco Parisi, OtrantoOtrantoOtranto is a town and comune in the province of Lecce , in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses.It is located on the east coast of the Salento peninsula. The Strait of Otranto, to which the city gives its name, connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and Italy with Albania...
air defense radar controller - suicide by hangingHangingHanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
.
Memorial
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
on June 27, 2007 the Museum for the Memory of Ustica was opened. The museum is in possession of parts of the plane, which are assembled and on display.
Almost all of the external fuselage of the plane was reconstructed. In the museum there are also objects belonging to those on board that were found in the sea near the plane.
Christian Boltanski
Christian Boltanski
Christian Boltanski is French sculptor, photographer, painter and film maker.-Life and work:Having no formal art education, he began painting in 1958. Nevertheless, he first came to public attention in 1960 with few short films and publication of several notebooks...
was commissioned to produce a site specific installation.
The installation consists of:
- 81 pulsing lamps hanging over the plane
- 81 black mirrors
- 81 loudspeakers (behind the mirrors)
Each loudspeaker describes a simple thought/worry (e.g. "when I arrive I will go to the sea")
All the objects found are contained in a wooden box covered with a black plastic skin.
A small book with the photos of all objects and various information is available to the visitor upon request.
See also
- Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)In the first Gulf of Sidra incident, 19 August 1981, two Libyan Su-22 Fitter attack aircraft were shot down by two American F-14 Tomcats off of the Libyan coast.-Background:...
- Gulf of Sidra incident (1989)Gulf of Sidra incident (1989)The second Gulf of Sidra incident occurred on 4 January 1989 when two US F-14 Tomcats shot down two Libyan MiG-23 Flogger-Es that gave all appearances of attempting to engage them, as had happened seven years prior in the first Gulf of Sidra incident ....
- Strategy of tensionStrategy of tensionThe strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
- Anni di piombo
- Operation GladioOperation GladioOperation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
- Bologna massacreBologna massacreThe Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of Saturday, 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack has been materially attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari...
- Accidents and incidents in aviation
- List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
External links
- Official Site of the Association of the Relatives of the Victims of the Accident
- AirDisaster.Com Accident Synopsis of Flight 870
- Accident details at planecrashinfo.com, film about the accident
- The mystery of flight 870 - Guardian Newspaper.
- (Video) The truth about Ustica's disaster (6/27/1980)
- 'Accident to Itavia DC-9 near Ustica, 27 June 1980: wreckage and impact information & analysis' ISASI forum Vol. 28, No.1, March 1995
- Airliners.Net: Pictures of the DC-9 carrying Flight 870 before and after the accident