Linate Airport Disaster

A Diagram of the Incident. The Star indicates the crash point.

Serious Crash*This article is a Serious Crash and should not be taken lightly. While all crashes no matter what the incident is, is serious. This one is very serious and should not be joked about*
### Wikipedia Information

The Monday morning accident occurred in thick fog, with visibility reduced to less than 200 metres (660 ft).

The Cessna Citation was instructed to taxi from the western apron along the northern taxiway (taxiway R5), and then via the northern apron to the main taxiway which runs parallel to Runway 36R, a route that would have kept it clear of 36R. Instead, the pilot taxied along the southern taxi route (taxiway R6), crossing Runway 36R toward the main taxiway which lay beyond it (see diagram).

At 08:09:28, the MD-87 was given clearance by a different controller to take off from Runway 36R. Fifty-three seconds later, the MD-87 aircraft, traveling at about 150 knots (280 km/h; 170 mph), collided with the Cessna. One of the four people in the Cessna was killed on impact; the remaining three died in the subsequent fire. The MD-87 lost its right engine; the pilot, Joakim Gustafsson, attempted to take off, reaching an altitude of approximately 12 metres (40 ft). The remaining engine lost some thrust due to debris ingestion, and the plane, having lost the right landing gear, came down. Gustafsson applied thrust reverser and brakes, and tried to guide the plane through its control surfaces. This was insufficient to halt the jet's momentum, and it crashed into a luggage hangar located near the runway's end, at a speed of approximately 136 knots (252 km/h; 157 mph). In the impact, all the MD-87's crew and passengers were killed. The crash and subsequent fire killed four Italian ground personnel in the hangar, and injured four more.

Of the occupants of the MD-87, 54 (46%), mainly in the back of the aircraft, suffered severe burns; their bodies were identified using forensic dentistry or DNA records. Those in the front of the aircraft suffered severe blunt trauma. All of the occupants of the MD-87 were killed by impact, not fire.

#### Causes

The accident occurred less than a month after the September 11 attacks and the day after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan began, but the Italian government was quick to rule out a terrorist attack as the cause. This was subsequently confirmed by the investigations that followed.

The accident was investigated by the National Agency for the Safety of Flight (ANSV). The ANSV's final report was published on 20 January 2004 and concluded that the "immediate cause" of the accident was the incursion of the Cessna aircraft onto the active runway. However, the ANSV stopped short of placing the blame entirely on the Cessna pilots, who had become lost in the fog. Their report identified a number of deficiencies in the airport layout and procedures.

Linate Airport was operating without a functioning ground radar system at the time, despite having had a new system approved on 30 March 1995. The previous system had been decommissioned on 29 November 1999, but the replacement had not been fully installed. The new system finally came online a few months later. Guidance signs along the taxiways were obscured, or badly worn, and were later found not to meet regulations. After the pilots mistakenly turned onto the R6 taxiway that led to the runway, there were no signs by which they could recognize where they were. When they stopped at a taxiway stop-marking, and correctly reported its identifier, S4, the ground controller disregarded this identification because it was not on his maps and was unknown to him. Motion sensing runway incursion alarms, although present, had been deactivated to prevent false alarms from vehicles, or animals. The ground controller's verbal directions used terminology to designate aprons, taxiways, and runways, which did not match their on-the-ground signage and labels. Lastly, neither pilot of the Cessna was certified for landings with visibility less than 500 metres (1,600 ft), but had landed at the airport anyway an hour before the disaster with a visibility reported by air traffic control of 100 metres (330 ft) .

#### Aftermath

On 16 April 2004, a Milan court found four persons guilty for the disaster. Airport director Vincenzo Fusco and air-traffic controller Paolo Zacchetti were both sentenced to eight years in prison. Francesco Federico, former head of the airport, and Sandro Gualano, former head of the air traffic control agency, received sentences of six and a half years. The pardon law issued by the Italian Parliament on 29 July 2006 reduced all convictions by three years. On 7 July 2006, Fusco and Federico were acquitted by the Milan Appeals Court. The controller Zacchetti's sentence was reduced to three years. In addition three more people were sentenced for multiple manslaughter and negligent disaster: former ENAV director general Fabio Marzocca to four years and four months, and; former SEA airports agency officials Antonio Cavanna and Lorenzo Grecchi each to three years and three months. On 20 February 2008 the Supreme Court of Cassation upheld the acquittal of Fusco and Federico and confirmed five convictions. (Initially, in late 2002, eleven officials and functionaries had been charged with manslaughter.)

The initial eight-year sentence for Zacchetti prompted outrage among air traffic controllers. His sentence has been questioned in aviation safety law commentary.