SKYSCRAPER CRASH IN MILAN ITALY

Fownews

[michigander]

MILAN (Reuters) - A small tourist plane hit a skyscraper in central Milan Thursday, setting the top floors of the 30-story building on fire, a police official said.

Eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud explosion from the office block, which houses the administrative headquarters of the local Lombardy region and sits next to the city's central train station.

"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. The building is known as the Pirelli skyscraper but the Italian tire and cable company does not operate out of the building. It is one of the symbols of Italy's financial capital and is 127 meters-high.

"A Piper plane has crashed into the building," a police official said. He added he had no further details.

[ksen]

Twenty lire bet that the pilot was of Arab extraction or is a practicing Muslim.

And if it was, we won't hear about it for a few days. Enough time for people to start calming down.

-Kevin

[epluribus_2]

DOW is down 150 points and falling fast!...where's the jingle from Car 54? (The one with Hillaries due in Idlewilde is best)

[I still care]

terrorist, tourist, hey, what's the difference?

[WRhine]

And America is continuing to allow immigration from Terrorist Nations because?

[Mo1]

CNN is airing the building now

[VRWC_minion]

FOX News says unknown if it's an accident or what the motive might be..........

Coming right after the new bin Laden video the motive is pretty obvious.

[Sir Gawain]

-

[michigander]

Stop that! This is serious! ROTFLMAO!!!!!

[caa26]

But a pilot will do almost anything to avoid civilian casualities on the ground. Plus this is the tallest building in Milan? There better be some HARD evidence to back up any claims that this is an accident.

[RichInOC]

"This is a self-preservation society,
"A self-preservation society..."

[nimc]

What is our current 'Alert level'? And how do we know when it changes?

[TheDon]

CNN showing live picture now.

[Tijeras_Slim]

If Action Directe, Baader Meinhof, and the Red Brigades didn't convince Europe, what makes you think this will? I believe that a great deal of European "sophistication" is the inability to admit evil exists.

[2sheep]

According to http://www.worldtimeserver.com it is currently 06:19 PM. What time did the plane hit and how many people might be in the building?  It might be after work hours.

UTC/GMT is 16:19 on Thursday, April 18, 2002
the current time in Italy: 06:19 PM
Thursday, April 18, 2002

[Walkin Man]

1. the pilot was of Arab extraction or is a practicing Muslim.

2. it was a pimply teenager on accutane.

Maybe it was a muslim teenager on accutane! Yikes!

[Bommer]

YO, Keep the information to what is known, not Monday Morning Terrorist Quarterbacking.

[epluribus_2]

would be bloody stupid for OBL and company to do this to a eu country - they have so far been appeasers on the war on terror (except for some nifty police arrests - but not the leaders).

[Utopia]

I hate to say this, but if people die, if this is terrorism, I'm glad it happened in Europe instead of the US again. Maybe just MAYBE this will convince Europe they are not immune to terrorism.

I agree with you. Let it be a Palestinian who flew out of France with ties to al-Queda. I don't want innocent to die, but I'm sick of the Euro-Weenies attitude toward the war on terrorism.

[watchwoman]

If other plane crashes follow in quick succession, I guess we'll have our answer.