The parents of the pilot Fabio Antonio Altruda, who died in the plane crash that took place on 13 December last in the Misiliscemi countryside, presented a complaint to the Trapani prosecutor’s office. Father Fernando and mother Marilena believe that “the cause of the accident is to be attributed to an important breakdown of the aircraft due to omitted or poor maintenance”. The captain had left the military airport of Birgi at 9 in tandem with another plane to reach the military airport of Istrana (Treviso), for an operational mission aimed at escorting an American plane. This can be read in the complaint presented by the lawyer Fabio Sammartano: “The plane was equipped with armaments”.
The prosecutor Gabriele Paci and the deputy Franco Belvisi, with the carabineri of the Operations Department, are investigating for murder and culpable disaster in the context of a file “against unknown”. The family members ask that the information contained in the recovered “black boxes” not be “collected and processed by the military administration”. A surprise exhibit, which arrived on 31 December last year, reconstructs Captain Altruda’s activity on the day of the disaster. And he’s making accusations against the Air Force.
Trapani: the moment of the crash of the Eurofighter
“The two soldiers – writes the lawyer Sammartano – at the end of that escort mission had lunch and also rested at the premises of the Istrana airport, resuming the return flight at around 16.50 on the same day to return to the airport of Trapani, communicating in constant radio contact with each other, and so regularly until the moment of the disaster”.
Altruda’s flight mate, Major Andrea Maida who was piloting the other Eurofighter, reported that “the disaster occurred immediately after having himself visually ascertained that the pilot-captain Altruda – now in proximity to the Trapani airport – had regularly opened the undercarriages of the aircraft in preparation for landing when, however, it suddenly fell to the ground”.
Trapani, found the body of the crashed Eurofighter pilot: the impact 3 km from the base
The complaint, Captain Altruda’s parents and brother write, “should be well considered also in relation to the potential (but not abstract) conflict of interest that appears to exist between the needs of the military Administration and the investigative needs of this judicial authority – the latter always aimed at ascertaining the truth of what happened but in respect of the rights of the persons damaged by the crime according to the fundamental constitutional principles – in order to be able to avoid any undue retention of the information collected for the exclusive interest and advantage of the military security policy of the armed force”.