Itavia Flight 870#Hypotheses on the causes

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The aircraft, flown as Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870, was a Douglas DC-9-15, serial number 45724, registered as I-TIGI. At the time of the accident, it had flown for 29,544 hours over 45,032 flights.{{cite web| url=https://asn.flightsafety.org/asndb/328310 |title=Unlawful Interference Douglas DC-9-15 I-TIGI, Friday 27 June 1980 |website=asn.flightsafety.org |publisher=Flight Safety Foundation |last=Ranter |first=Harro |access-date=14 December 2024}} The aircraft was manufactured in 1966 and delivered to Hawaiian Airlines registered N902H.{{cite book |last=Francillon |first=Rene |date=1988 |title=McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920 |volume=I |location=Annapolis, Maryland |publisher=Naval Institute Press |page=596 |isbn=0 87021-428-4}}

On 27 June 1980 at 20:08 CEST, the aircraft departed with a delay of one hour and 53 minutes from Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport for a scheduled service to Palermo Punta Raisi Airport, Sicily. With 77 passengers aboard, Captain Domenico Gatti (34), and First Officer Enzo Fontana (32), were at the controls, with two flight attendants."Massacre over the Mediterranean" Mayday [documentary TV series]. The flight was designated IH 870 by air traffic control, while the military radar system used AJ 421.{{Cite web|url=https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19800627-0|title=ASN Aircraft accident Douglas DC-9-15 I-TIGI Ustica, Italy [Tyrrhenian Sea]|last=Ranter|first=Harro|website=aviation-safety.net|access-date=2019-06-10}}

Contact was lost shortly after the last message from the aircraft was received at 20:37, giving its position over the Tyrrhenian Sea near the island of Ustica, about {{convert|120|km|-1}} southwest of Naples."Italian DC-9 lost off Sicily." Flight International. 5 July 1980. p. [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1980/1980%20-%201610.html?search=Itavia 2]. ([http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1980/1980%20-%201610.PDF Direct PDF link], [https://web.archive.org/web/20140203140603/http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1980/1980%20-%201610.PDF Archive]) At 20:59 CEST, the aircraft broke apart in mid-air and crashed.{{Cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1987/06/16/dagli-usa-arrivato-il-nastro-del.html|title=DAGLI USA E' ARRIVATO IL NASTRO DEL DC9 – la Repubblica.it|website=Archivio – la Repubblica.it|date=16 June 1987 |language=it|trans-title=THE TAPE OF DC 9 HAS COME FROM THE USA|access-date=2019-06-10}}

Two Italian Air Force F-104s were scrambled at 21:00 from Grosseto Air Force Base to locate the accident area and search for any survivors but failed to locate the area because of poor visibility.{{Citation needed|reason=two f-104 were in flight before the crash, landing at Grosseto air base. no information about F-104 crash-related take off from Grosseto, but hh3f helicopters from Ciampino.|date=June 2009}}

Floating wreckage parts were later found in the area.{{Cite web |year=2006 |title=A case involving wreckage analysis |url=https://aviation-safety.net/pubs/other/Taylor_paper_Ustica_illustrated.pdf}} There were no survivors among the 81 occupants on board.{{harvnb|Cooper|2018|p=26}}

In July 2006, the re-assembled fragments of the DC-9 were returned to Bologna from Pratica di Mare Air Force Base near Rome.

The perpetrators of the crime remain unidentified. After hearings held from 1989 to 1991, the Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism, headed by Senator Libero Gualtieri, issued an official statement concerning the crash of Flight 870, which became known as the "Ustica Massacre" (Strage di Ustica).[https://www.stragi80.it/documenti/comstragi/gualtieri.PDF Commissione Parlamentare d'inchiesta sul terrorismo in Italia e sulle cause della mancata individuazione dei responsabili delle stragi. Relazione sull'inchiesta condotta sulle vicende connesse al disastro aereo di Ustica. Presidente Libero Gualtieri] (approvata dalla Commissione nella seduta del 14-15 aprile 1992) Then the crash was referred to by a "prima facie" judicial act as "primarily an act of war, a de facto unreported war – as has been customary ever since Pearl Harbor, until the latest Balkan conflict – an international police operation, in fact, up to the great powers, since there was no mandate in this sense; a non-military coercive action exercised lawfully or illicitly, by one State against another; or an act of terrorism, as it was later claimed, of an attack on a head of state or regime leader.".Ordinanza-sentenza by judge R. Priore, 1999, p. 4965

A number of Italian Air Force personnel have been investigated and tried for a number of alleged offences, including falsification of documents, high treason, perjury, abuse of office and aiding and abetting. None have been convicted. On 30 April 2004, Generals Corrado Melillo and Zeno Tascio were held to be not guilty of high treason. Lesser charges against a number of other military personnel were also dropped. Other allegations could no longer be pursued after the expiration of the statute of limitations, since the disaster had occurred more than 15 years before, which included charges against Generals Lamberto Bartolucci and Franco Ferri. In 2005, an appeals court ruled that no evidence supported the charges. On 10 January 2007, the Italian Court of Cassation upheld this ruling and conclusively closed the case, fully acquitting Bartolucci and Ferri of any wrongdoing.

In June 2010, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano urged all Italian authorities to cooperate in the investigation of the accident.{{cite news|last=Troendle|first=Stefan|publisher=Tagesschau|title=Napolitano fordert Aufklärung des Absturzes von Ustica|date=27 June 2010|url=https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/ustica108.html|access-date=27 June 2010|quote=Zum Jahrestag der Flugzeugkatastrophe von Ustica hat Italiens Staatspräsident Giorgio Napolitano alle staatlichen Stellen aufgefordert, daran mitzuarbeiten, das Unglück endlich aufzuklären. Es müsse eine befriedigende und ehrliche Rekonstruktion der Ereignisse stattfinden, damit alle Unklarheiten beseitigt würden.}}

In September 2011, a Palermo civil tribunal ordered the Italian government to pay 100 million euros ($137 million) in civil damages to the relatives of the victims for failing to protect the flight, concealing the truth and destroying evidence.{{Cite news |title=Italy court fines government $137 million over mysterious crash of plane over Ustica |agency=Associated Press |date=13 September 2011 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italy-court-fines-government-137-million-over-mysterious-crash-of-plane-over-ustica/2011/09/13/gIQArlRxPK_story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408080430/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italy-court-fines-government-137-million-over-mysterious-crash-of-plane-over-ustica/2011/09/13/gIQArlRxPK_story.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 April 2019 }}

On 23 January 2013, the Civil Cassation Court ruled that there was "abundantly" clear evidence that the flight was brought down by a stray missile, confirming the lower court's order that the Italian government must pay compensation.{{Cite news |title=Italian court: Missile caused 1980 Mediterranean plane crash; Italy must pay compensation |agency=Associated Press |date=23 January 2013 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italian-court-missile-caused-1980-mediterranean-plane-crash-italy-must-pay-compensation/2013/01/28/8337ede8-6976-11e2-9a0b-db931670f35d_story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130092826/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italian-court-missile-caused-1980-mediterranean-plane-crash-italy-must-pay-compensation/2013/01/28/8337ede8-6976-11e2-9a0b-db931670f35d_story.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 November 2018}}

In April 2015, an appeals court in Palermo confirmed the rulings of the 2011 Palermo civil tribunal and dismissed an appeal by the state attorney.{{Cite news |title=Ustica, Corte d'Appello conferma: "Il Dc-9 venne abbattuto da un missile" |date=8 April 2015 |newspaper=Il Fatto Quotidiano |url=http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2015/04/08/ustica-corte-dappello-conferma-dc-9-venne-abbattuto-missile/1573006 }}

After the series of bombings that hit Italy in the 1970s, a terrorist act was the first explanation to be proposed. As the flight was delayed in Bologna by almost three hours, a bomb's timer may have been set to actually cause an explosion at the Palermo airport, or on a further flight of the same aircraft.

The 1990 judicial inquiry was supported by a technical commission, led by independent investigator Frank Taylor. The technical commission's report concluded that an explosion in the rear toilet, and not a missile strike, was the only conclusion supported by the wreckage analysis.[http://aviation-safety.net/pubs/other/Taylor_paper_Ustica_illustrated.pdf A. Frank Taylor, "A Case History Involving Wreckage Analysis: Lessons from the Ustica investigations"] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20141021024942/http://aviation-safety.net/pubs/other/Taylor_paper_Ustica_illustrated.pdf Archive]) A test explosion in a DC-9 lavatory had shown the resulting deformation in the surrounding structure to be almost identical to that of the accident aircraft.A. Frank Taylor (March 1995) "Accident to Itavia DC-9 near Ustica, 27 June 1980: wreckage and impact information & analysis," International Society of Air Safety Investigators Forum (Paris, October 1994), 28 (1) : 6 ff. Available online at: [http://www.stragi80.it/documenti/ricostruzioni/taylor2.PDF Strage di Ustica]* A. F. Taylor (1998) "The study of aircraft wreckage: the key to accident investigation," Technology, Law and Insurance, 3 (2) : 129–147.

The technical commission's report was criticised in the Italian media by Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica.{{Cite web|date=2021-06-27|title=Ustica, 41 anni dopo. Mig, morti sospette, depistaggi: ecco cosa sappiamo|url=https://www.corriere.it/cronache/21_giugno_27/ustica-41-anni-dopo-mig-morti-sospette-depistaggi-ecco-cosa-sappiamo-227aec22-d67c-11eb-94c4-73c6504e8d78.shtml

|access-date=2022-01-23|website=corriere.com|language=it-IT}} In particular it was stated that there was no evidence of explosive residue, per tests performed in 1994 by the Defence Research Agency in the United Kingdom.{{Cite web|title=LE MISTERIOSE ASSENZE DEI PERITI DI USTICA - la Repubblica.it|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1994/06/28/le-misteriose-assenze-dei-periti-di-ustica.html|access-date=2020-08-28|website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it|date=28 June 1994 |language=it}}{{Cite web|date=2015-11-25|title=Ustica, perito inglese: depistaggio il missile Contesta le tesi degli altri esperti: c' e' molta puzza di disinformazione " Un nesso con la strage di Bologna "|url=http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1994/luglio/12/Ustica_perito_inglese_depistaggio_missile_co_8_9407122121.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125133658/http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1994/luglio/12/Ustica_perito_inglese_depistaggio_missile_co_8_9407122121.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-11-25|access-date=2020-08-28}}

Parts of the Italian media alleged that the aircraft was shot down during a dogfight involving Libyan, United States, French and Italian Air Force fighters in an assassination attempt by NATO members on an important Libyan politician, perhaps even Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, who was flying in the same airspace that evening.{{Cite journal |title=Italy's Darkest Night |author=Thomas Van Hare |journal=Historic Wings |date=27 June 2012 |url=http://fly.historicwings.com/2012/06/italys-darkest-night/ }} This version was supported in 1999 by Judge Rosario Priore,[https://www.theguardian.com/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1825348,00.html The Mystery of Flight 870], The Guardian, 21 July 2006 who said in his concluding report that his investigation had been deliberately obstructed by the Italian military and members of the secret service, in compliance with NATO requests.

According to the Italian media, documents from the archives of the Libyan secret service passed on to Human Rights Watch after the fall of Tripoli show that Flight 870 and a Libyan MiG were attacked by two French jets.{{Cite journal |title=Libyan secret documents said to uncover Ustica tragedy... and how Gaddafi escaped to Malta unscathed |author=Noel Grima |date=18 September 2011 |journal=The Malta Independent |url=http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2011-09-18/news/libyan-secret-documents-said-to-uncover-ustica-tragedy-and-how-gaddafi-escaped-to-malta-unscathed-298884/ }}

On 18 July 1980, 21 days after the Itavia Flight 870 crash, a Libyan MiG-23MS was found crashed in the Sila Mountains in Castelsilano, Calabria, southern Italy.{{harvnb|Cooper|Grandolini|Delalande|2015|p=41}} According to Libyan Air Force sources, the pilot was a victim of hypoxia. As his aircraft's autopilot was activated, it just kept flying straight and level until running out of fuel, and eventually crashed in the Sila Mountains.

In 2008, Francesco Cossiga (Prime Minister when the accident occurred) said that Itavia Flight 870 had been shot down by French warplanes.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090211174216/http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKL2264892420080622 Italy Reopens Probe Into 1980 Plane Crash: Media], Reuters, 22 June 2008 On 7 July 2008, a claim for damages was served on the French President.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

In 2023, former Italian prime minister Giuliano Amato said that France downed the aircraft while targeting a Libyan military jet in an attempt to kill Muammar Gaddafi. Amato said that Italy tipped off Libya about the planned assassination and consequently Gaddafi did not board the Libyan military jet.{{Cite web |last=D'Emilio |first=Francis |date=2 September 2023 |title=Italian ex-premier says French missile downed an airliner in 1980 by accident in bid to kill Gadhafi |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/italian-ex-premier-says-french-missile-downed-an-airliner-in-1980-by-accident-in-bid-to-kill-gadhafi/ar-AA1g90h1 |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=Associated Press |via=MSN}}{{cite news |last1=D'Emilio |first1=Frances |date=2 September 2023 |title=Italian ex-premier says French missile downed an airliner in 1980 by accident in bid to kill Gadhafi |language=en |work=AP News |url=https://apnews.com/article/italy-france-libya-gadhafi-plane-5dc7758c2e76d6a56a95f4e296f3172a |access-date=4 September 2023}}{{Cite web |date=2023-09-02 |title=Italy ex-PM alleges France downed passenger jet in bid to kill Gaddafi |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/giuliano-amato-muammar-gaddafiv-itavia-flight-870/ |access-date=2023-12-09 |website=POLITICO |language=en}}

Several conspiracy theories explaining the disaster persist.{{Cite journal |title=Conspiracy Buffs Gain in Court Ruling on Crash |author=Elisabetta Povoledo |date=10 February 2013 |journal=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/world/europe/itavia-flight-870-ruling-adds-support-to-a-theory.html }} 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. {{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Several radar reports were erased and several Italian generals were indicted 20 years later for obstruction of justice. The difficulty the investigators and the victims' relatives had in receiving complete, reliable information on the Ustica disaster has been popularly described as un muro di gomma (literally, a rubber wall),{{Cite journal |title=Italian Obsession: Was Airliner Shot Down? |author=ALAN COWELL |date=10 February 1992 |journal=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/10/world/italian-obsession-was-airliner-shot-down.html }} because investigations just seemed to "bounce back".

On 27 June 2007, the Museum for the Memory of Ustica was opened in Bologna. The museum is in possession of parts of the plane, which are assembled and on display, including almost all of the external fuselage. The museum also has objects belonging to those on board that were found in the sea near the plane. Christian Boltanski was commissioned to produce a site-specific installation. The installation consists of:

• 81 pulsing lamps hanging over the plane
• 81 black mirrors
• 81 loudspeakers (behind the mirrors)

Each loudspeaker describes a simple thought/worry (e.g. "when I arrive I will go to the beach"). All the objects found are contained in a wooden box covered with a black plastic skin. A small book with photos of all objects and various information is available to visitors upon request.

The crash of Itavia Flight 870 was featured in the 13th season of the Canadian documentary series Mayday in an episode entitled "Massacre over the Mediterranean".{{Cite web |last=Rotten Tomatoes |title=Mayday: Season 13, Episode 7 {{!}} Massacre over the Mediterranean |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/mayday/s13/e07 |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=www.rottentomatoes.com |language=en}} The episode discussed the separate investigations into the event, and appeared to favour the investigation led by Frank Taylor, which concluded that the wreckage ruled out a missile and pointed to an explosion in or near the rear lavatory was the most likely.

A 1991 Italian film by Marco Risi, The Invisible Wall, tells the story of a journalist in search of answers to the many questions left open by the accident. The film theorises on a few possible scenarios, including the possibility that the DC-9 was mistakenly shot down during an aerial engagement between NATO and Libyan jet fighters.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102487/ |title=The Invisible Wall (1991) |last= |language=en-US |access-date=2024-05-26 |via=m.imdb.com}}

• List of aircraft accidents and incidents resulting in at least 50 fatalities
• List of unsolved murders
• Operation Gladio

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Tom |title=MiG-23 Flogger in the Middle East, Mikoyan i Gurevich MiG-23 in Service in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Syria, 1973-2018 |date=2018 |publisher=Helion & Company Publishing |location=Warwick |isbn=978-1-912-390328}}
• {{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Tom |last2=Grandolini |first2=Albert |last3=Delalande |first3=Arnaud |title=Libyan Air Wars, Part 1: 1973-1985 |publisher=Helion & Company Publishing |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-909982-39-0}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070205130800/http://www.comune.bologna.it/iperbole/ustica/index.html Official Site of the Association of the Relatives of the Victims of the Accident]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130502234741/http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=06271980®=I-TIGI&airline=Itavia AirDisaster.Com Accident Synopsis of Flight 870]}}
• [http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1980/1980-32.htm Accident details] at [http://www.planecrashinfo.com/ planecrashinfo.com]
• {{IMDb title|qid=Q3794924|title=Il Muro di gomma}}, film about the accident
• [https://www.theguardian.com/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1825348,00.html The mystery of flight 870] – Guardian Newspaper.

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