Itavia Flight 870

 Itavia Flight 870 (air disaster,  assassination,  mid-level deep event?)

Remains of Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870
Date	27 June 1980
Location	Tyrrhenian Sea,  near Ustica,  Italy
Witnessed by	Ivo Nutarelli
Deaths	81
Interest of	Ivo Nutarelli
Description	Suspicious plane crash that was the subject of complex legal action.

Itavia Flight 870 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 passenger jet en route from Bologna to Palermo, Italy. On 27 June 1980, it crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea between the islands of Ponza and Ustica, killing all 81 people on board. In Italy it was known as the Ustica massacre.

Legal actions

The event was followed by numerous investigations, legal actions and accusations, and continues to be a source of controversy, including claims of conspiracy by the Italian government and others.

“We still hope the truth will come out. We know that very probably the plane was struck down by a missile. Too many people have been keeping this secret for too long but we will not give up until we know everything that happened.” Daria Bonfietti

1994 joint investigation

Fourteen years after the crash, a 1994 joint investigation was carried out by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and Italian investigators, which included veteran British air accident investigator A. Frank Taylor and Engineer Goran Lilja of Sweden. The investigation found conclusive physical evidence (as per the wreckage recovered) that a bomb had exploded mid-flight in the rear lavatory, and reported as follows:

4.1 It was concluded that the accident was brought about by in-flight break-up resulting from extensive structural damage caused by the detonation of an explosive charge in the rear (starboard) toilet.

4.2 The charge was probably located in the outer wall of the toilet although other nearby positions cannot be ruled out.

4.3 For the preferred position the charge would most probably have been inserted via the tissue holder just forward of station 801 and pushed rearwards to lie to the rear of the frame at station 801 and at a height at or just above the lower skin of the adjacent engine pylon.

4.4 Other less likely but possible and accessible positions include either inside the toilet waste tank, via the waste hole, or on top of it, via the cupboard under the wash basin.

However, the Italian courts dismissed this joint report as insignificant to their own investigation, and the report was never considered.

Alleged causes

• In June 2008, the Prime Minister of Italy at the time (1980), Francesco Cossiga, attributed the crash to being accidentally shot down during a dogfight between Libyan and NATO fighter jets. Earlier in 2008, Cossiga told Italian television that he and former cabinet under-secretary Giuliano Amato were told by Italian secret service agents that a French aircraft had launched the missile in an apparent attempt to hit a nearby plane believed to be carrying Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Media reports based on radar monitoring data said fighter jets from several NATO nations were in the area at the time of the crash, possibly following a Libyan MiG that was trying to evade radar control by flying close to the civilian plane.

• In the book Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations, the Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman describes a plan to assassinate Yasser Arafat, the PLO-leader then resident in Tunisia. Over a period of several years, described in the book as 1982-83, The Israeli air force had a squad patrolling the sea areas outside Tunisia waiting for an opportunity to shoot down Arafat's plane.

• The Mossad defector Victor Ostrovsky, in his book The Other Side of Deception claimed Israel was involved in the incident.

• In June 2010, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano urged all Italian authorities to cooperate in the investigation of the incident.

Legal action

In September 2011 the Palermo civil tribunal ordered the Italian government to pay 100 million euros ($137 million) in civil damages to the relatives of the victims for failure to protect the flight and for concealing the truth and destroying evidence.

On 23 January 2013, Italy's top criminal court ruled that there was "abundantly" clear evidence that Itavia Flight 870 was brought down by a missile, and confirmed the lower court's order that the Italian government must pay compensation.

In April 2015 the Appeal Court in Palermo confirmed the rulings of the Palermo civil tribunal of 2011 and rejected the appeal by the state attorney.

Dead Witnesses

A series of deaths of members of the Italian Air Force has sparked rumors of a conspiracy to remove those involved and inconvenient witnesses. See also the full article on Ivo Nutarelli.

• On August 8, 1980, Colonel Pierangelo Tedoldi died in a traffic accident. Tedoldi was nominated as the successor to the commander of the Grosseto Air Force Base, Colonel Nicola Tacchio. However, at the time of his death he had not yet taken up his command. On the evening of June 27, an interceptor landed on this base with pilots Nutarelli and Naldini, who had previously crossed the path of the DC-9 near Florence.
• On May 9, 1981, Captain Maurizio Gari died of heart failure aged 37. On the night of June 27, Gari was one of three officers in the radar station of Poggio Ballone at Grosseto.
• On January 23, 1983, the mayor of Grosseto, Giovanni Battista Finetti, was killed in a car accident. He had found out from Air Force officers that on the evening of June 27th two interceptors had taken off from the nearby airfield to shoot down a Libyan MiG.
• On March 30, 1987, Sergeant Alberto Dettori was found hanged from a tree. On the night of June 27-28, he was one of the officers on duty at the Poggio Ballone radar station.
• On August 28, 1988, the above-mentioned pilots Ivo Nutarelli and Mario Naldini died in the Ramstein flight conference accident . A week after the Ramstein accident, the two pilots were supposed to have testified to the committee of inquiry into Itavia flight 870. Given the connection to the Ustica crash and the numerous other deaths in this context, however, some, including Elmar Giemulla, a lawyer and expert in aviation law, suspect that the accident was in fact sabotage .
• On February 1, 1991, Air Force Sergeant Antonio Muzio was shot dead. In 1980 he worked in the Lamezia Terme radar system.
• On February 2, 1992, Air Force Sergeant Antonio Pagliara was employed at the Otranto radar facility in 1980. He died in a car accident.
• On February 2, 1992, the secret service officer Sandro Marcucci, who was on duty on the evening of June 27, 1980, crashed in a sports plane before being questioned.
• On January 12, 1993, Air Force General Roberto Boemio was stabbed to death in Brussels by unknown perpetrators. The now retired officer was the commander of the regional operations center in Martina Franca on the evening of June 27, 1980 and was considered an important witness.
• On December 21, 1995, Franco Parisi was found hanged from a tree. He was employed at the Otranto radar facility in 1980 and had received a summons to testify in court a few days earlier.

 

Witness

Witness	Description
Ivo Nutarelli	Italian Air Force pilot witnessing or participating in the events around the shoot down of flight Itavia Flight 870 in 1980. Died in deadly acrobatic show accident in 1988.

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References

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