The pilot, one of the richest men in Romania, detected an anomaly and notified the control tower although he did not raise an alarm
Eight people died yesterday in San Donato, on the outskirts of Milan, when the private plane in which they had just taken off a few minutes earlier and with which they intended to travel to Olbia, in Sardinia, crashed. The pilot and the passengers, all of them Romanian nationals and including a young child, died in the impact against a building that was caught in flames. Fortunately, the building was empty at the time because it was being renovated, according to the fire department. The fire caused some vehicles parked in the area to be damaged, although there was no regret for further personal injury.
Both the Milan Prosecutor’s Office and the Italian National Agency for Aviation Safety opened an investigation to clarify what happened. “The plane made a turn after taking off, so the pilot probably realized that there was something wrong,” said Carlo Cardinali, a member of the fire brigade of the Lombard capital. Prosecutor Tiziana Siciliana explained that the radar registered the start of the flight, but the device, a Pilatus Pc-12, disappeared shortly after the signal.
Black box
“It does not seem that they raised the alarm, but they did communicate to the control tower that there was an anomaly,” said the prosecutor. The information that can be obtained from the black box, which has already been recovered from the place where the incident occurred, will be decisive to clarify the reasons for the accident. According to Cardinali, the impact was “extremely violent, there was an explosion and parts of the device were thrown off at various points.”
The deceased pilot was a well-known person in Romania. This is Dan Petrescu, 68, one of the richest men in his country for his real estate business. He also had German nationality, as was the case with his 30-year-old son, who was also killed in the accident. The other victims are Petrescu’s wife, 65, and five people whose identities have not yet been made public, although they are also known to have come from Romania. In that group there was a young boy.
«First we hear like a buzzing coming from the sky. Then an explosion, which looked like a bomb, and the earth shook, “Mina Ishak, owner of a pizzeria located near the place where the accident took place, told the Adnkronos agency. “We were among the first to arrive at the place, where everything was burning. I saw the body of a child and also that of another person. It was impressive”. Edoardo, a university student who was waiting for the bus at a nearby stop when the plane and the building collided, said that people “started running” when the explosion occurred. «The plane passed over me. It was very close. And immediately afterwards there was a very loud bang. It all happened very quickly, ”the young man declared.
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