Italy investigates if acrobatic plane struck birds before it crashed
5492 Mins Read
The Italian Air Force said it was investigating whether an aircraft of its acrobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, struck birds before it crashed near an airport, killing a child on the ground.
A 5-year-old girl, named Laura, and her family were traveling in a car near the perimeter of the airport near the northern city of Turin when the aircraft crashed Saturday afternoon, bursting into flames and smashing through the airport fence.
The girl’s mother and older brother remained hospitalized for treatment of burns while the father was released Sunday, hospital officials said.
Video of the crash shows nine aircraft in two tight V-formations, before one of the aircraft drops below the others and crashes, sending a fireball into the air. In the video, the pilot —identified as Maj. Oscar Del Do — can be seen ejecting with a parachute shortly before impact inside a fence airfield. He suffered burns.
The pilot of a jet told his colleagues that he is grief-stricken. “I’m profoundly pained,” Mayor Oscar Del Do’ told his colleagues, sources said.
“All I think about is little Laura”. The pilot survived after ejecting from the jet but also suffered burns. He is likely to be put under criminal investigation by prosecutors.
This, however, is a formality necessary for investigators to run a conduct a series of procedures to find out what happened and does not imply that they think he is to blame, the sources said.
Police and emergency services gather at the site of a plane crash near the airport of Caselle, Turin, northern Italy. EPA-EFE/TINO ROMANO
