Mon, Jun 23, 2008
Prosecutors Attempt To Confirm Cause Of 1980 Downing Near
Sicily
The cause of a mysterious Italian
airliner crash 28 years ago is being reexamined again by Italian
officials after recent statements by a former Italian
president.
According to Reuters, the Italian media reported prosecutors in
Rome are reopening a probe into the explosion of Itavia Flight 870
over the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily near Ustica on June 27,
1980. The McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 operated by the now-defunct
Italian airline went down at 2059 CET while enroute to Palermo
International Airport in Sicily from Guglielmo Marconi Airport in
Bologna. The renewed interest follows statements made earlier this
year by former Italian President Francesco Cossiga referencing his
opinion the plane was hit by a French missile.
Reuters said the Rome prosecutor’s office was not
available to confirm the report.
On January 10, 2007, a Rome court closed the original case when
it acquitted two former air force generals, Lamberto Bartolucci and
Franco Ferri, of providing false information about the crash which
killed 81 people.
Theories on the cause of the explosion have spread in the years
since the downing, ranging from the airliner being caught in the
middle of a dogfight between a NATO jet and a Libyan fighter to the
jet being mistakenly identified as an enemy jet and subsequently
shot down by a missile.
Italian television earlier this year featured Cossiga stating
that he and the former cabinet undersecretary Giuliano Amato
were informed by Italian secret service agents a French aircraft
launched a missile apparently attempting to hit a nearby plane
believed to be carrying Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
According to the media, radar monitoring data reports showed
fighter jets from several NATO nations were present in the area at
the time of the explosion, possibly following a Libyan fighter
trying to avoid radar detection by flying close to the
airliner.
The crash has been the subject of many books, a museum display,
and a film for its mysterious circumstances. Many Italians believe
the cause was covered up for security or military reasons.
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