1980: Itavia 870 shot down over Ustica/Italy

[Carsten Wiethoff]

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan...sh-missile

Italy's top criminal court has ruled there is "abundantly" clear evidence that a stray missile caused an Italian passenger jet to crash near Sicily in 1980, killing all 81 people on board.

More details (in German) here: http://www.taz.de/Flugzeugabsturz-von-Us...-/!109997/

In short: On June 27, 1980 Nato fighters tried to shoot down a plane with Gaddafi on board, but instead hit an Italian DC9 with 81 people on board. The event was completely covered up and witnesses ready to testify were eliminated. Now, 33 years after the fact, the Italian state has been convicted to pay 110 Million Euro in compensation.
Similarities to TWA800 can be seen.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Carsten - excellent find, thank you.

Here's the full English language article in The Guardian:

Italy: Ustica plane crash mystery blamed on stray missile

Italian court says 'abundant' evidence points to cause of 1980 tragedy that killed 81 people en route from Bologna to Palermo

Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 January 2013 19.58 GMT

The remains of the Itavia airliner, kept at a military base near Rome. Photograph: Bruno Mosconi/AP

Italy's top criminal court has ruled there is "abundantly" clear evidence that a stray missile caused an Italian passenger jet to crash near Sicily in 1980, killing all 81 people on board.

Quoting from the Rome ruling, the Italian news agency LaPresse said the court had upheld a Palermo appeal ruling that Italian radar systems had failed adequately to protect the skies, and Italy must compensate the victims' families.

What caused the Itavia DC-9 to crash during a flight from Bologna to Palermo has been one of Italy's enduring mysteries.

Some claimed a bomb had exploded; others contended the jet had got caught in the crossfire of a military aerial dogfight, with a Libyan plane possibly the target. French, US and Nato officials denied military activity in the skies that night.

Itavia Airlines flight 870 took off from Bologna bound for Palermo with 81 passengers and crew aboard. An hour into the flight, it disappeared from the radar screens. The last message received from the pilot was a routine call to ground control, informing them that he was about to start his descent, followed by an exclamation of surprise, which was abruptly cut short.

A few hours later, wreckage from the DC-9 was spotted in the Tyrhennian Sea, off the island of Ustica, near Sicily. There were no survivors.

Many Italians have since said the cause of the crash, which has been the subject of a film, a museum display and numerous books, was covered up for security or military reasons.

This begs a fundamental question.

Who had the Power to keep a mass fatality plane crash out of the newspapers and TV news bulletins?

Who could ensure this tragedy was effectively written out of history, that this crime avoided judicial scrutiny, for over three decades?

My provisional answer:

NATO.

[Carsten Wiethoff]

The Guardian article which is qouted above is only a very watered-down version of events, not even mentioning the facts that have been officially established. It seems to be difficult to find more detailed descriptions in English language, but the Italian wikipedia article is much more specific. See https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strage_di_Ustica
The best established theory seems to be that two french fighter planes were responsible for the shootdown, but the US had their hands in it, too, at the very least watching the events in real time from their AWACS plane nearby. One sentence in the English wikipedia article is really striking in this regard:

For example, the vessel that carried out the search for debris on the ocean floor was French, but only US officials had access to the aircraft parts they found.

[Carsten Wiethoff]

From http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2...ed-298884/

According to Italian media reports, confidential documents found in the archives of the Libyan secret service after the fall of Tripoli, which are now in the hands of Human Rights Watch, prove what led to the downing of an Itavia Dc-9 over the Mediterranean island of Ustica on 27 June 1980.Eighty-one people on board the flight, which had been en route from Bologna to Palermo, died.As has long been suspected, the cache of papers confirms that a missile had hit the plane after it was mistaken for a plane carrying then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.According to the papers, two French jets first attacked the airplane and then engaged in a duel with a solitary Mig fighter aircraft, carrying the Jamahiriya insignia and thought to be accompanying Col Gaddafi, until they forced it to crash into the mountainous region of La Sila in southern Italy.Colonel Gaddafi, informed in time of the attack, escaped to Malta where he landed in his Tupolev, according to the documents. It would seem, from the secret service papers found, that Gaddafi was informed by the Italian secret service (SISMI) that he was about to be attacked, and had sought refuge in Malta.The Italian authorities sealed off the area where the Mig crashed and a journalist and a photographer, who tried to get the story at the time, were arrested and kept for hours by the police until they surrendered what they had documented.Later on, the Libyan authorities claimed the Mig pilot had been on a training flight and must have lost his way. His corpse, which had already been buried, was exhumed; an autopsy was carried out and the corpse was later repatriated to Libya.A few days later, on 7 July 1980, a bomb destroyed the offices of the Libyan Arab Airlines in Freedom Square in Valletta and there was also an arson attempt on the Libyan Cultural Institute in Palace Square at that time.According to a book by French journalist and historian Henri Weill, the bomb and arson attacks were carried out by the French secret service, the SDECE, as was an attack on a Libyan naval vessel in Genoa.Then, less than a month later, on 2 August 1980, an enormous bomb destroyed most of the Bologna train station and 80 people were killed. Responsibility for that terrorist attack has never been ascertained with any certainty.Just this week an Italian court ordered the government to pay €100 million in civil damages to the relatives of the 81 people killed in the 1980 aircraft disaster, which still remains one of Italy's most enduring mysteries, at least until the documents discovered this week have been thoroughly studied.The Italian government said on Tuesday that it would appeal the decision of the Palermo civil tribunal, which on Monday held Italy's transport and defence ministries liable for having failed to guarantee the security of the flight.Among other previous theories behind the crash are that there was a bomb on board or that the airliner might have been accidentally caught in the crossfire of a military aerial dogfight.Attorney Daniele Osnato, who along with a handful of lawyers represented about 80 relatives of the victims, said justice had finally been done.In addition to determining that the ministries responsible had failed to protect the flight, he said, the tribunal also concluded they were responsible for concealing the truth and destroying evidence.Another aerial dogfight theory had once been given credence by Judge Rosario Priore, who had originally indicted the generals responsible. Judge Priore had theorised that a missile from a US jet fighter or from another Nato plane accidentally hit the Italian domestic jetliner while trying to shoot down a Libyan plane.French, US and Nato officials have long denied any military activity in the skies that night.

[Peter Lemkin]

Enjoy your next flight! Makes one wonder how many of the airline 'crashes' claimed to be accidents have had a more sinister cause!

It seems that Cossiga was Prime Minister at the time.....and a declared member of Gladio!!!!

Francesco Cossiga (Italian pronunciation: [franˈtʃesko kosˈsiɡa]; 26 July 1928 17 August 2010)[1] was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the eighth President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari.

Cossiga was born in Sassari in the north of Sardinia.[1] He started his political career during World War II. His name is now usually pronounced Italian pronunciation: [kosˈsiːɡa], but it was originally pronounced Italian pronunciation: [ˈkɔssiɡa], with the stress on the first syllable, meaning "Corsica".[2] He was the cousin of Enrico Berlinguer.[3]Contents [hide]

Minister for the Christian-Democracy

He was a minister several times for the Democrazia Cristiana party (DC), notably during his stay at Viminale (Ministry for internal affairs) where he re-structured the Italian police, civil protection and secret services. In 1977, when Cossiga was minister of internal affairs, police squads organized by Cossiga shot against a demonstration in Rome, killing student Giorgiana Masi. Cossiga for many years stated that she was killed by her companions.[4]

He was in-charge during the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro by Red Brigades, and he resigned when Moro was found dead in 1978.[5] According to Italian journalist Enrico Deaglio, Cossiga to justify his lack of action "accused the leaders of CGIL and of the Italian Communist Party to know the location where Moro was detained".[4] Cossiga was also minister of internal affairs when Fascist terrorists bombed Bologna station in 1980. He initially declared that it was a Fascist attack, but he later stated it was a Palestinian transport of weapons which went wrong. He also supported the innocence of Giusva Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro, who were later condemned for the bombing and for numerous murders, declaring: "They are good guys and they want me well."[4]

During the early 1980s, Cossiga attacked several times the antimafia judges and spoke in favour of judge Corrado Carnevale, a member of the Corte di Cassazione (Italy's supreme court) who had annulled numerous sentences against mafia leaders and was later tried for these actions.[4]

Cossiga was elected President of the Italian Senate 12 July 1983, a position he held until 24 June 1985, when he became the President of Italy.

Election as President of Italy

Following his resignation as president of the Senate in 1985, Cossiga was elected President of Italy (Head of State). This was the first time a candidate had won following the first ballot (where a majority of over two thirds is necessary).

It was not until his last two years as President that Cossiga began to express some unusual opinions regarding the Italian political system. He opined that the Italian parties, especially the DC (his own party) and Italian Communist Party, had to take into account the deep changes brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.[6]

Cossiga during his Presidency

These statements, soon dubbed "esternazioni", or "mattock blows" (picconate), were considered by many to be inappropriate for a President and, often, beyond his constitutional powers; also, his mental health was doubted and Cossiga had to declare "I am the fake madman who speaks the truth."[6]

Tension developed between Cossiga and the President of the Council of Ministers Giulio Andreotti. This tension emerged when Andreotti revealed the existence of Gladio, a stay-behind organization with the official aim of countering a possible Soviet invasion through sabotage and guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. Cossiga announced his involvement in the establishment of the organization.[7][8] The Democratic Party of the Left (successor to the Communist Party) started the procedure of impeachment (Presidents of Italy can be impeached only for high treason against the State or for an attempt to overthrow the Constitution).[9][10] Although he threatened to prevent the impeachment procedure by dissolving Parliament, the impeachment request was ultimately dismissed.

Cossiga resigned two months before the end of his term, on 25 April 1992.[11]

[Carsten Wiethoff]

Yes, the timing coincidence with the bombing of the Bologna train station also points to a Gladio and therefore NATO/US connection.

[Frank Taylor]

The following illustrated paper grew from that submitted to the independent international 'Misiti Commission' at the Tribunale di Roma in 1994, its findings were agreed and approved by the vast majority of members and the conclusion that the cause was an internal explosion was that of the Misiti Report.

http://aviation-safety.net/pubs/other/Ta...trated.pdf

It is 'abuntantly clear' that the January Supreme Court ruling took no account of the evidence from the wreckage nor the findings of the Misiti Commission's radar experts, so who and what did they believe? It would again seem likely that nobody will be seeking the true perpetrators!