On June 27, 1980, at 20.59 CET, the shattered remains of the Aerolinee Itavia DC-9-15 I-TIGI (flight IH870 Bologna-Palermo) plunged into the sea not far from the island of Ustica, just north of Sicily, with no survivors among the 81 passengers and crew. The true cause of the accident has not yet been ascertained, although reliable judicial and journalistic investigations, such as that by Andrea Purgatori, have revealed that a violent confrontation between combat aircraft of various air forces took place near the scene of the disaster that night. In particular the French government has always refused to reveal to Italian magistrates the activity of its Aéronavale Crusader fighters, armed with air-to-air missiles, which were present in the vicinity of the Itavia DC-9. Despite the persistence of (well-refuted) negationist theories which would have a bomb aboard the aircraft, the passengers and crew who died in the skies over Ustica are still denied justice. Rumours about "lack of maintenance" of the DC-9-15 I-TIGI undermined the reputation of the airline which in 1981 was placed under extraordinary administration and in 1983 went out of business completely. Undoubtedly, Alitalia was the major beneficiary of this due to the demise of a serious competitor which had actively been pursuing an increase of its share of passengers from airports other than Fiumicino, Linate and Malpensa.
In the picture: McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15 I-TIGI operated by Aerolinee Itavia, former Hawaiian Airlines N902H until February 1972, lands at Turin/Caselle airport on December 29, 1972. (Aeromedia)
(Aeromedia, March 2020)
