Posted on 04/19/2002 5:00:42 PM PDT by blam
April 20, 2002
'Debts drove Milan pilot to suicide'
From Richard Owen in Milan
THE pilot who crashed a light aircraft into the upper floors of one of Milan’s landmark skyscrapers appears to have done so deliberately. Members of his family and senior Italian officials said yesterday that Luigi Fasulo had crippling financial problems that could have driven him to suicide.
Initial relief that Thursday’s crash was not a repeat of the September 11 attacks gave way to fears that while Fasulo had no known links with Islamic terrorism, he had imitated the New York suicide attacks.
By aiming his 26-year-old four-seater Rockwell Commander at the centre of the 26th floor of the Pirelli Tower, the pilot, known as Gino, killed himself and three others.
One of the dead was a woman lawyer who was at her desk on the 26th floor when the plane struck. Her charred body was thrown by the impact into the street below. Colleagues said she was married with a four-year-old son.
The building normally houses 2,000 office workers, but only 300 were left by the time the plane hit just before 6pm. Initial reports said Fasulo, 67, who was married with two children, had suffered a heart attack at the controls or had lost control while trying to cope with a faulty undercarriage.
But investigators said it was striking that the hole punched in the building, which towers above the nearby Milan railway station, was “dead centre”.They also said it was also “an odd coincidence” that the floors Fasulo hit housed the offices of the Lombardy regional government and its President, Roberto Formigoni. They were largely empty at the time.
The dead pilot’s son, Marco, who like his father is a pilot and lives in Switzerland, ruled out an accident and said Fasulo had undoubtedly killed himself. “This was suicide,” he said. “People were out to bring him down financially.”
He said that his father was an experienced pilot with 5,000 hours and 30 years’ flying experience. “He could not possibly have done this by mistake,” he said.
The picture painted on Thursday evening as the drama unfolded was of an experienced but elderly pilot who either became confused or suffered an illness as his plane malfunctioned.
Yesterday a more complex version emerged of a wheeler-dealer figure who had mixed in what police described as murky financial circles. Friends said that Fasulo, originally from the Naples area, had moved to Ticino, Switzerland, for tax reasons, and had turned his hobby of flying into a lucrative business, flying “VIPs” around Europe.
He had a police record in Switzerland where he had been investigated for allegedly smuggling jewels and works of art across borders for wealthy clients. A close friend of Fasulo told La Repubblica that an unidentified group had taken over $1 million (£690,600) off him. Air traffic controllers at Linate airport said the theory that Fasulo had collided with the Pirelli Tower by accident was still “part of the inquiry”.
Three theories about why the crash happened
1. Terrorism. The immediate assumption of many, including the Speaker of the Italian Senate, who yesterday apologised for announcing in Parliament minutes after the disaster that “we are probably dealing with a terrorist attack”. Fasulo had no links with Islamic terrorism, and no known views on Islam and the West. “This has nothing to do with terrorism,” Claudio Scajola, the Interior Minister, said.
2. Suicide. The emerging hypothesis. Fasulo is said to have been burdened with debts, perhaps threatened by creditors, and is also said to have been involved in “shady” deals on behalf of wealthy clients who used his aircraft “taxi service” to move around Europe.
3. Accident. Still under investigation. ANPAC, the pilots union, said it believed that Fasulo had fallen ill at the controls, possibly overcome by fumes from the damaged hydraulics of his stricken undercarriage. He had signalled an SOS before crashing, and was elderly, although experienced and in good general health.
Notice that the stock market stabilized as they broadcast "accident !!!! " over and over again. Guess "accident !!!" ain't working.
It's a little early for nap time, but what the heck, okay.
I used to live in Denver back in the boom days, when the State bird was jokingly going to be changed to the crane.
I distinctly remember that it was a point of pride for all the owners of skyscrapers to show off the scarred buildings where all the suicidal and accident prone pilots had crashed into the buildings.
Happens all the time ya know.
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