Pilot may have misheard instructions

The air crash into the 30-storey Pirelli Tower in Milan may have occurred after the pilot misinterpreted instructions meant for a helicopter flying nearby.

As air accident experts continue their investigations into the crash which killed three people and injured more than 30 others, the final dramatic exchanges between the pilot, Luigi Fasulo, 68, and Milan airport were revealed today.

The Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera reported the final conversation:

Fasulo: "Control tower, this is HB CNX (registration) Air Commander RC. I have a problem with my undercarriage. Over."

Control tower: "OK, received. Circle over ATA (a private airstrip)."

Helicopter pilot then interrupts: "Control tower, can I begin my landing now?"

Control tower: "No, go back, go back."

Fasulo: "OK, control tower. Copied."

Helicopter pilot: "No, the order was for me."

Control tower to Fasulo: "HB CNX, you are off route, you are off route."

The transmission then ends as Fasulo's plane crashes into the Pirelli Tower, killing him instantly.

An Italian Air Accident spokesman said: "We spoke to him for seven minutes and he seemed calm and rational, then for some reason he flew away into the city.

"At the moment he contacted the tower there was a helicopter landing, and there may have been some confusion between Fasulo and the tower after he heard instructions for the helicopter and thought they were for him.

"What we are trying to establish is why he hit the tower. Did he have a heart attack or was there a fire onboard? We just don't know and that's what we are trying to find out."

Many newspapers as well as TV and radio specials questioned how such a small plane could have flown so far into the city centre and hit Milan's only real skyscraper.

In a front page editorial La Stampa said: "Certainly it was an accident, of that there is no doubt. What must be discovered is what a small plane was doing flying near such a symbol of political power in the city.

"How could it arrive there? And even if the control tower says they tried to call the pilot twice telling him to move and he disobeyed, how is that such a plane could have flown so low over the roof tops? Shouldn't the radar have given some warning?"

What about the security measures? What if, instead of Luigi Fasulo at the controls, there was a kamikaze pilot? How many dead would we be counting now?"

For several minutes after the crash, police and security services feared a repeat of the 11 September terror attack on New York. Military helicopters and jets were scrambled and airports were put on alert.

TV footage was eerily reminiscent of the New York tragedy as smoke billowed into the sky from the Pirelli building and workers emerged clutching blood-soaked makeshift bandages. Rescue workers and firefighters searched the wreckage of the building for survivors after the disaster which happened shortly before 6pm local time.

Firefighters took more than an hour to bring the blaze under control and several people had to be rescued from elevators which had stopped at the time of the impact. The death toll was officially put at three - the pilot Luigi Fasulo, 68, and two women lawyers, Alessandra Santonocito and Annalisa Rapetti, who worked in the legal department of the regional council whose offices were in the building. One of the women was said to have leaped to her death from her office in the smoke-filled building.

Speaking on Italian TV news, flying instructor Luca Pedrolini said: "Fasulo was a pilot with a lot of experience. However, with all the sympathy we have towards a colleague whose life has ended tragically, he was a bit of a cowboy pilot.

"He was not connected with anything remotely terrorist and he was the last person who would have carried out some sort of suicide mission."

However Signor Pedrolini did question what Fasulo was doing flying over a built-up city. He said:"When you have an undercarriage problem you just fly to burn up fuel and then put it down on any runway.

"What I find difficult to understand is what he was doing flying over Milan. There are certain routes over the city and entrances so as to avoid any possibility of an accident. I don't see what could have made him fly the plane into that area.

"Maybe he ran out of petrol or maybe there was some other problem which we don't know about, such as a fire onboard."

A spokesman for the Italian Air Safety Board said: "This was a tragic accident and had nothing to do with terrorism, although I can imagine how Italians must have felt looking at the TV pictures."

But last night, several callers to Porta a Porta, the Italian equivalent of Newsnight, asked why a plane had been allowed to fly over the city, and one asked why it hadn't been shot down.

Stock Exchanges across Europe dropped on news of the accident b 3 much the same as they had on 11 September after terrorists attacked the Twin Towers.