Private Plane crashes into Milan Bldg.

[aaronb]

A little Piper Warrior with no passengers crashed into an office building in Milan. The pilot issued an SOS and witnesses saw smoke coming from the plane before it crashed into the building. Italian officials have closed the airport in Milan but say that there is no indication that terrorism was involved.

 

[MAJOR STONER]

Last time I heard, we have nine plane crashes everyday in the US.

 

[MAJOR STONER]

They are saying that this one was an accident. I guess that is better for the stock markets. What kind of experienced pilot flys into the tallest building dead center? Got your hat on, Lud?

"but as the pilot neared the city, he told air traffic controllers he was having problems with his landing gear."

"The pilot was told to head west, but for unknown reasons veered north, telling the airport he was fixing the problem."

"He lost contact and did not send a distress call before hitting the skyscraper."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/default.stm

 

[steveny]

I agree It sounds a little fishy to me as well. Problems with the landing gear do not effect the controls needed to divert the plane from hitting a building. I think the pilot was using that ploy to buy enough time to intentionally hit the building.

 

[MAJOR STONER]

I find it interesting that the US issued an alert about a possible terrorist strike in Italy just a few weeks ago, and now we have a complete denial of what is pretty obvious.

 

[Lud]

Originally posted by MAJOR STONER:
Got your hat on, Lud?

Yes, I find it prevents me from wild speculation when I don't know the facts...

 

[aaronb]

According to eye-witness accounts the plane was on fire before it hit the building.

Extensive damage for a single engine plane with a fuel capacity not much more than 100 gal.

Some have speculated that he may have had landing gear problems -- on some small planes the manual crank is low down between the seats or partially behind the pilot. It was also reported that it may take 20 cranks of the manual gear lever to get them down. Maybe he wasn't looking and hit the tallest building dead on by accident.

I'd be curious to see NTSB stats prior to Sept 11 on how many planes actually run into buildings accidentally. A little thing like a piper warrior or commander can land in almost any pasture or highway -- doesn't seem like many would slam into buildings.

 

[MAJOR STONER]

Much speculation centres on the theory that the pilot, Luigi Fasulo, aimed the plane at the Pirelli building deliberately in order to commit suicide.

One of Mr Fasulo's two sons, Marco, told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that his 67-year-old father had killed himself.

"It was a suicide, a suicide, I'm telling you. There were people who wanted to ruin him financially, so he committed suicide," he said, alluding to his father's reported large debts.