Linate Airport disaster

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Linate airport disaster

SAS Flight 686 after crashing into hangar
Summary
Date   October 8, 2001
Type   Runway collision
Site   Milan, Italy
Fatal Injuries   118 (4 on ground)
Serious Injuries   4 (all on ground)
Aircraft 1
Aircraft type   McDonnell-Douglas MD-87
Operator   Scandinavian Airlines
Registration   SE-DMA
Ship name   Lage Viking
Passengers   104
Crew   6
Survivors   0
Aircraft 2
Aircraft type   Cessna Citation II
Operator   Private aircraft
Registration   D-IEVX
Passengers   2
Crew   2
Survivors   0

The Linate Airport disaster occurred on October 8, 2001, at Linate Airport in Milan, Italy.

Scandinavian Airlines Flight SK686, which used an MD-87 plane carrying 110 people, destination Copenhagen Airport, collided on take-off with a Cessna Citation II (code D-IEVX) business jet carrying 4, directed to Paris. There were no survivors. Wreckage was sent flying into a baggage-handling building, where an additional four people were killed, and four others injured.

Contents

[edit] Accident

Reconstruction of the disaster (click to enlarge).
Reconstruction of the disaster (click to enlarge).

The accident occurred in thick fog, with visibility reduced to less than 200 m. Investigations showed that the control tower's instructions to the Cessna Citation had not been followed correctly, and the plane had erroneously moved onto the runway. The two planes collided at 08:10AM, with the SAS MD-87 running at a speed of approximately 270 km/h. All four in the Cessna were killed on impact. The MD-87 lost its right engine; however the pilot, Joakim Gustafsson from Sweden, attempted to take off anyway, reaching an altitude of approximately 12 m (35 f). Having lost the port side landing gear, power failure grounded the plane and Gustafsson tried to slow the plane through its aerodynamic surfaces. The manoeuver was judged so skillful that it is now incorporated into SAS technical manuals. However, the maneuver was insufficient to halt the jet's momentum, and it crashed into a luggage hangar located at the runway's end, at a speed of 250.7 km/h. In the impact, all the MD-87's crew and passengers were killed. The subsequent fire killed four ground operators in the hangar, and wounded four more.

[edit] Causes

The accident occurred less than a month after the September 11, 2001 attacks and the day after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan began, which left many people thinking that the disaster was in fact a terrorist attack. This possibility was ruled out by the investigations that followed.

Linate Airport was operating without a functioning ground radar system at the time, despite having had a system delivered some years beforehand, which had not been fully installed. The new system finally came online a few months later. Guidance signs at the crossroads where the Cessna took the wrong runway, were later found to be not according the regulations; on the following R6 taxiway that led to the runway, there were no signs by which the Cessna pilots could recognize where they were. Furthermore, both pilots of D-IEVX were not certified for landings with visibility less than 550 m, but had attempted anyway, successfully, a few minutes before the disaster.

On April 16, 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; six and a half years-long sentences were given to Sandro Gualano, former head of the air traffic controllers' agency, and Francesco Federico, former head of the airport. In the Second Grade process (July 7, 2006), Fusco and Federico were however discharged. Another four people were sentenced. The pardon law issued by Italian Parliament on July 29, 2006 reduced all convictions by three years.

[edit] Memorial

The Bosco dei Faggi.
The Bosco dei Faggi.

In March 2002 a forest containing 118 beeches called Bosco dei Faggi was inaugurated as a memorial to the victims in the Forlanini Park near the airport. A sculpture by the Swedish artist Christer Bording donated by SAS, called Infinity Pain, was placed in the centre of the forest.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 45.4484° N 9.2767° E

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