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Italian Flight Authority Condemned over Linate Crash
An probe report, conducted by the Italian Transport Ministry on the October 8 runway disaster at Milan's Linate Airport which killed 118 people has highlighted an alarming series of safety procedure violations.
The report, on Thursday, condemned Italy's flight control authority, the ENAV.
The report stressed that the tragedy, the worst in Italian civil aviation history, was linked to "anomalies in installations and procedures with respect to the regulations in force."
It noted that the airport's ground radar system, known as Aerodrome Surveillance Monitoring Indicator (ASMI), had been out of action for more than a year and that runway stop signs were inadequate and confusing.
A Copenhagen-bound Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) plane with 104 passengers and six crew aboard hit a four-man Cessna plane that strayed into its take-off path and then plunged into a baggage hangar, when Linate airport was shrouded in heavy fog. The occupants of both planes were killed along with four baggage-handlers.
Italian Transport Ministry investigators also lambasted ENAV in the report, indicating that the "incomplete" documentation they had received included an ENAV document saying that the ASMI system was only available on request in conditions of poor visibility.
"That means that ENAV's most important institutional function, namely security, is only carried out, as far as ground movement is concerned, upon the pilots' request," they said.
The report added that the AMSI system, which allows the control tower to monitor the ground movements of aircraft and other vehicles, had only been operational for 85 days since November 1999, when it was first delivered to Linate.
It also stressed that pilots were confused because the lights on the R6 path were clearly visible, whereas those on the R5 were too far away to be seen. Other stop signs were on when they should have been off, the report added.
In a final damning note, the report said detectors protecting the main runway from unauthorized intrusions had been out of action for some time."
ENAV swiftly denied the report's allegations, insisting that SEA, the company that manages Milan's two airports, was responsible for Linate's runway ground signs and not ENAV. It said that ground safety policies in the absence of the radar system had been decided upon by ENAV together with ENAC, the national civil aviation agency and airline companies. A "correct and competent" reading of the ENAV document would have "certainly avoided any correlation between safety and a 'service available on request," ENAV said. It added that it would wait to see the full report before deciding what action to take.
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