SKYSCRAPER CRASH IN MILAN ITALY

Fownews

[Bommer]

Just reported that a small engine plane crashed into a Skyscraper in Milan Italy

[Maitre_Z]

German magazine Spiegel is reporting that the pilot was 55, named Luigi Fasulo It also mentioned that the building was not on the route to the emergency landing strip. Nach Medienberichten soll der 55-jährige Pilot, Luigi Fasulo, technische Probleme gemeldet haben... Der Pilot, der allein in der Piper gesessen haben soll, soll angeblich beim Mailänder Flughafen eine Notlandung angemeldet haben. Da die normale Notlandebahn jedoch nicht zur Verfügung stand, soll ihm eine Landebahn Richtung Stadt zugewiesen worden sein. Das Gebäude liegt nicht auf der Flugroute. Nach Angaben des Flughafens soll der Pilot am späten Nachmittag auf seine Landeerlaubnis auf den Mailänder Flughafen Linate gewartet haben. Dann habe er plötzlich abgedreht, nachdem er bereits einen Notruf abgesetzt hatte.

[Catspaw]

Why yes I can...it happened in Canada a few years ago - a hospital - plane had problems with navigation and crashed into the building. It happens. Take the tin hats off and move onto the next story. This was an accident.

A little over a year ago, a small corporate jet took off from the airport in Green Bay and went down about two miles from the airport, crashing into a dairy products warehouse very near where my husband works. The accident killed the pilot and injured about a dozen, including two with very severe burns. It was mechanical difficulties that brought down the plane and it appeared the pilot was trying to reach an open field near the building.

However, until more facts are known about the crash in Milan, I'm not going to rule anything out.

[Joe Hadenuf]

As a pilot, whats your take or gut feeling on this?

[codebreaker]

MSNBC going to coverage all afternoon, raising questions of a 'planejacking' perhaps some one smuggled themself on board.

[texlok]

So, ANY PILOTS WITH IDEAS ON HOW TO HIT A BUILDING, SQUARE ON, STRAIGHT AND LEVEL, ON A CLEAR DAY, BY ACCIDENT?

You answered your own question :

With enough smoke in the cockpit you might not see the building, but you probably would not be breathing either unless you were on oxygen (was this plane even equiped with oxygen?). With smoke like that, I might put the plane on autopilot to keep it straight and level.

[cyphergirl]

Ok.. scratch that. They just reported that the plane was a Rockwell AeroCommander -- a twin engine, 10 seats onboard.

That ain't no small plane!

[Delbert]

and most likely armed with one of the worst wepons of mass destruction kown to man....The Dreaded Swiss Army Knife! he was planning on taking out any survivors on the upper floors by "corkscrewing" them to death.

[codebreaker]

You forgot about the people on the ground seeing the plane on fire.

[DJ88]

So I thought from reading your posts. I was just clearing that up for Bommer, thank you. ;-)

[jpl]

Wonder if Mr. Fasulo was a guy who frequently gave flight lessons to, shall we say "swarthy" gentlemen.

[aristeides]

So he got authorization to make an emergency landing, appeared to be making such a landing, and then made a sudden turn to hit the building. Sure doesn't sound like an accident to me.

[TankerKC]

IP or IN? What model 52s?

[Invincibly Ignorant]

Now you guys sound like the French...refusing to accept facts. This was an accident. A twin engine can and did cause that much damage to a building. Get over it. It was an accident by a 70 year swiss man.

Ya right. He knew he was having problems, circled the city and decided the safest place to go down would be the biggest building in Millan. Duh! I aint no beachcomber.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Reports are that this was a bigger plane than first thought, so the damage could be consistent with simply a plane strike, rather than any explosives.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Thats what we heard to, an Aero Commander!

[bootless]

Hi EternalHope,

I'm a PPL/ASEL pilot, and haven't looked at the whole thread yet. If the plane hit the building squarely, wings straight and level, I'd be a whole lot more suspicious than someone doing a city tour, getting too close to a building for whatever stupid reason ("Hey y'all, watch this!"), and hitting during a bank.

Smoke in the cockpit - good thought for an electrical fire, primer pump wiggled loose and some of the leaking fuel caught fire, etc. If they're at building level in Milan (what's the elevation?), I doubt he'd be on O2.

Will be back after I read the particulars.

[VRWC_minion]

Rockwell Aero Commander (AC-500S)

[Utopia]

Aero Commander
Do you have the model? It can be either a single or a twin engine. If its a twin, its considered a medium-to-heavy twin and could cause considerable damage. It carries more fuel than the Seneca II reported earlier. I have approximately 100 hours in twin engine Aero Commander 560 and 520.