Carpatair aircraft off the runway in Fiumicino
An ATR 72 aircraft (of the Romanian company Carpatair) departed the runway while landing at Leonardo da Vinci airport at 20:15 [local]. There were 50 people aboard the flight, including four crew members. Sixteen were injured, two seriously, but none of the injuries are life threatening. Alitalia's partner airline Carpatair, which has been at the centre of many incidents in the past, has aroused much controversy. Alitalia itself intimated that the strong wind blowing at the airport was the cause of the accident, but in the meantime has suspended flights to Pisa and Bologna operated by the Romanian carrier.
Among the injured, the most serious case is that of a female flight attendant, a foreign national, who was probably standing at the time of the accident and sustained injuries to her spinal column. The woman was taken by ambulance to Gemelli Hospital. Another passenger was taken under code red to San Camillo hospital. The other injured people were taken to San Camillo (three code-green patients), Sant'Eugenio (a code yellow and two code greens), Aurelia Hospital (a code yellow), San Filippo Nero (three code greens), Grassi (two code yellows), and the Tor Vergata Polyclinic (two code greens), with more or less severe bruises. Other passengers on the plane were treated on the spot. Fifteen other passengers received medical checks at the scene: these include several Italians and a Brazilian, though the majority are Romanian citizens.
The aircraft is currently lying on the grass, at the top of no. 3 runway [sic], leaning slightly to one side and with an undercarriage leg snapped off. The machine is surrounded by four fire engines, as well as airport security and police vehicles. A passenger offered a dramatic account: "So very afraid. Some of us thought they were going to die and everyone screamed. During the landing the aeroplane twice hit the ground hard: they tell me that the second time the undercarriage collapsed and the aircraft finished up off the runway."
"The Carpatair aircraft went off the runway due to the strong wind," Alitalia said in a statement reconstructing the event. The same interpretation was offered by the Director of the Fiumicino Airport ENAC [Italian civil aviation agency], who spoke of the wind as a possible cause: "Just this moment it's impossible to say what happened. There could be a thousand reasons, not least the weather. The wind might indeed have contributed to the event," said Vitaliano Turra, in an interview with SkyTg24 [Italian cable news channel]. The Civitavecchia prosecutor's office has opened an investigation. An investigator of the National Agency for Aviation Safety is also at the scene and has begun an inquiry. The agents of Polaria, led by Antonio Del Greco, are trying to piece together the precise characteristics of the incident, to see if pilot error was the cause. The runway at the international airport was temporarily closed to air traffic, with some delays to flights.
PRECEDENTS The Romanian Carpatair company that operates some routes for Alitalia under sub-contract is no stranger to incidents affecting their aircraft. In May 2012 at Florence Airport, there was a fire indication on board and four passengers suffered contusions. In December, a fuel leak on a flight from Pisa to Rome made a return to base necessary. On 4 January, cabin depressurisation on an Ancona-Rome service sparked panic on board. The most recent incident took place on Monday, January 7: flight AZ1666, departing at 0700 from Pisa to Rome-Fiumicino, had just taken off when as a result of a mechanical failure on board it had to return to its point of origin.
"We have been so deeply struck by the number of mechanical failures and problems experienced by this company that I personally made a complaint to ENAC and the National Agency for Aviation Safety. Since then I haven't heard anything," said the national secretary of UIL Trasporti [the Italian transport workers' union], Marco Veneziani, in reference to the runway excursion. "There are serious question-marks over the company and we hope," Veneziani went on, "that the service will be suspended immediately. Before generating further alarm, though, we should await the outcome of the investigation."
And Antonio Divietri, the president of Avia (Italian Flight Attendants' Association), added: "The accident flight this evening at Fiumicino was an ATR 72 operated by the Romanian company Carpatair under Alitalia livery. Luckily, the first accounts indicate no serious injuries but we can't forget that along with Anpac and Anpav, we've been reporting for a long time now the growing number of operational anomalies on Carpatair-operated Alitalia flights. We hope that the investigations are thorough and bring into the full light of day any responsibility or omission that may have been involved on the part of all parties concerned."