Plane crashes into building near Milan; all 8 aboard die

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

ROME (AP) — A small, single-engine plane carrying six passengers and a crew of two crashed Sunday into a vacant two-story office building in a Milan suburb, and authorities said all eight people aboard died.

Investigators opened a probe into what caused the private plane to crash shortly after takeoff from Milan’s Linate Airport en route to Olbia Airport on the Italian island of Sardinia. A thick column of dark smoke rose from the crash site and was visible for kilometers. Several parked cars nearby went up in flames.

Firefighters tweeted that no one else but those on board involved in the early afternoon crash near a subway station in San Donato Milanese, a small town near Milan.

Milan Prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano told reporters at the scene that the plane was proceeding on its flight until “a certain point, then an anomaly appeared on the radar screen and it plunged,” striking the building’s roof.



Firefighters work on the site of a plane crash, in San Donato Milanese suburb of Milan, Italy, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. According to media reports, a small plane carrying five passengers and the pilot crashed into an apparently vacant office building in a Milan suburb. Their fates were not immediately known. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/europe-milan-plane-crashes-sardinia-3f1faa3b84d5c5eaf80e7bd2ab0799b2

[msongs]

1. 8 people on a single engine sounds a bit excessive nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. eg Pilatus PC-12

The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine turboprop passenger and cargo aircraft manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Stans, Switzerland, since 1991. The main market for the aircraft is corporate transport and regional airliner operators. The PC-12 is the best-selling pressurized single-engine turbine-powered aircraft in the world and has been for several consecutive years, with 1,700 deliveries as of October 2019.
...
The cabin can accommodate up to nine passengers and has a refreshment centre, an enclosed lavatory and a rear baggage area. Other cabin configurations include executive arrangements, seating between six and eight passengers; a four-seat passenger-cargo combi layout; and an air ambulance setup housing two litters and three attending medics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilatus_PC-12

[LunaSea]

2. What creates a radar anomoly

in a small aircraft? Onboard explosion? Wing flys off?
It does sound as if the planes capacity was being pushed.



A.P.-

Milan Prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano told reporters at the scene that the plane was proceeding on its flight until “a certain point, then an anomaly appeared on the radar screen and it plunged,” striking the building’s roof.

Control tower officials reported the anomaly, she said, but further details on that weren’t immediately given.

The prosecutor said the plane didn’t send out any alarm. It was too early to cite any possible cause for the crash, Siciliano said, adding that the flight recorder has been retrieved. A.P.-

[Suburban Warrior]

5. Romanian billionaire, seven others die in plane crash near Milan

A light aircraft piloted by Romanian billionaire Dan Petrescu crashed into an empty office building near Milan on Sunday, killing him, his wife and their son, and all five others aboard, Italian media reported.

The single-engine Pilatus PC-12 had taken off from Milan's Linate airport shortly after 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) headed for Olbia in the north of the Italian island of Sardinia.

It crashed just a few minutes later in San Donato Milanese, a town southeast of Milan, according to aviation agency ANSV, which has opened an investigation.

Witnesses said the plane was already in flames before it crashed into an office building undergoing renovations.

Petrescu, 68, was one of Romania's richest men. He headed a major construction firm and owned a string of hypermarkets and malls. He also held Germany nationality, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

Corriere and the AGI news agency said Petrescu's 65-year-old wife, who also had French nationality, and their son Dan Stefano, 30, were killed, as well as a child.

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2021/10/03/Romanian-billionaire-seven-others-die-in-plane-crash-near-Milan-

[Rollo]

6. I remember in the past sometimes light planes crash from...

...a fuel problem. Namely, someone forgot to turn on the fuel line from one of the tanks to the engine...

No idea if this was the cause of the Milan crash, but it may be a possibility.

[James48]

8. Not like that here.

This is a turboprop. Certification rules require a design that no valves need to be turned on or off during flight. The fuel flow must be available continuously until the tank is empty. This was a standard required long before the PC-12 was certified.

[pfitz59]

7. A PC-12 is not really "small"