Plane flies into building in Milan

According to AP reports, it is not a terrorist attack. The pilot was the only person on board and he radio'ed a distress call prior to the crash because he was losing energy and altitude.

The Italian government is calling it an "accident."

 

No idea what that is, but here is some early info on the crash:

(1) It was a small commuter plane coming from Switzerland.

(2) It apparently radioed some type of mechanical difficulties (so it's not likely terrorism)

(3) The building is, by far, the tallest in Milan, I believe (30 stories).

(4) The plane hit the 26th floor and caused massive fires. There were some initial worries that it might result in a collapse like WTC, but I haven't heard anything since.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/04/18/italy.milan/index.html

Plane hits Milan skyscraper
April 18, 2002 Posted: 12:51 PM EDT (1651 GMT)



MILAN, Italy (CNN) -- A small plane has hit a skyscraper in central Milan, setting the top floors of the 30-storey building on fire and killing at least one person.

There were conflciting reports as to whether it was a terrorist attack or an accident after the pilot of the Piper tourist plane reported that he had lost control.

The plane, en route from Sofia in Bulgaria to Rome, Italy, smashed into the Pirelli building's 26th floor at 5:50 p.m. (1450 GMT) on Thursday.

There were reports of office workers trapped in the building's elevators.

The building houses government offices and is next to the city's central train station. Several storeys of the building were engulfed in fire.

Italian TV showed a huge gaping hole in the side of the Pirelli building with smoke pouring from the opening.


Dozens of firefighters are at the scene
RAI state TV reported that the plane had apparently radioed an SOS because of engine trouble.

Earlier though, in Rome, the senate's president, Marcello Pera, said it "very probably" appeared to be a terrorist attack.

Police and ambulances are at the scene. Many people were on the streets as they left work for the evening at the time of the crash.

TV pictures from the scene evoked horrific memories of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the collapse of the building's twin towers.

"I heard a strange bang so I went to the window and outside I saw the windows of the Pirelli building blown out and then I saw smoke coming from them," said Gianluca Liberto, an engineer who was working in the area told Reuters.

The building is known as the Pirelli skyscraper but the Italian tyre and cable company does not operate out of the building.

The Pirelli skyscraper, located near the central train station, is one of the world's tallest concrete buildings. It is about 415 feet high and was designed in the 1950s by architects Gio Ponti and Pier Luigi Nervi. The building is one of the main symbols of Milan, along with the city's cathedral.

 

The SOS is a mystery because there are no fly rules in most downtown metropolitan areas and because most piots would head away from a congested area to one where they could hope to land their airplane.

Other reasons to smell terror:


The state department has a terror alert standing for American citizens in Italy through April 25, 2002. Second, the high rise building hit was a goverment building and the largest in Milan, in the heart of Milan's financial district. Third, Osama bin Laden videos have popped up in the last 72-hours, and the US had feared that their broadcast could be used as signals to sleeper cells to execute attacks. Fourth, the style of the attack fits the recent M.O. And finally fifth, it happened in broad daylight in good weather so it's hard to "miss" the building.

 

CNN reports that several witnesses said the small plane was on fire before it hit the building. If true, then it adds to the validity of the distress signal and accident theory.

Or maybe they lit up the plane before impact to ensure the building would catch fire. I highly doubt that. I suspect a terrorist would know a small plane would do limited damage and probably try to load it full of explosives to try and bring the building down or kill as many as possible.

 

The guy flying the plane was 75 years old