PPRuNe Forums - Italian Plane Crash

HI,

Not sure if this is the right place for this post or if you have heard but here goes:

ITALIAN police say at least three people were killed when a small plane crashed into a Milan skyscraper.

Detectives say the death toll includes the pilot of the plane, who had issued a distress signal before the impact, which happened at 5.54pm local time. Several dozen people are believed to be injured.

They do not believe the crash was a terrorist attack. The plane had taken off from Locarno, Switzerland, and was heading to Milan's Linate airport.

"We believe it isn't a terrorist attack," said Carabinieri paramilitary officer Vincenzo Curto said. "The pilot might have taken ill or it was an engine problem."

The 30-storey building, which is at the centre of Italy's financial capital and houses government offices, remains on fire. A large section of an entire floor lost its walls and holes were punched into two sides of the tower.

The plane is understood to have flown from Locarno in Switzerland and only the pilot was on board.

The Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is jetting back to Italy from talks in Bulgaria.

"It sounded like a bomb. The pavement shook like an earthquake," said a woman identifying herself only as Lucia.

Said Luccheta Antonio, 52, a barber down the block: "It was shocking. The windows shook and the mirrors fell to the floor."

The skyscraper was designed in the 1950s by architects Gio Ponti and Pier Luigi Nervi. It is about 120 meters (415ft) high.