Ustica air disaster: Former Italian Prime Minister blames France

In 2004, a court ruled that that the plane had crashed. “in a quasi-war scenario” and later media moved forward. the hunter trail of several NATO member states. More than 40 years after the Ustica air disaster, which left 81 people dead on June 27, 1980 near the island of Ustica (northern Sicily), the responsibility lies with us. of France and the United States is pointed out by a former Italian head of government. This man accuses the two countries of being responsible for the accident and of having done everything since then to prevent light being shed.

On the evening of June 27, 1980, a DC-9 from the Itavia company with 81 people was on board. The ship providing the Bologna-Palermo connection was damaged. in the Tyrrhenian Sea, resulting in the death of passengers and crew members.

Shot down by mistake

The thesis put forward by several Italian experts is that the tragedy occurred when one or two Libyan planes pursued by American and French fighters followed the route of the civilian plane to escape à their radars. Caught in this “war scenario”, the DC 9 would have been destroyed. shot by mistake, or would have entered in collision with one of the Migs present in the area.

The families of the victims are still demanding the truth. and justice in this affair anchored in the collective memory of Italians and considered one of the greatest air disasters in the country's history.

«&nbsp ;Make the skin agrave; Gaddafi »

In a published interview Saturday by the dailyLa Repubblica, former Prime Minister Giuliano Amato (1992-1993) takes up this thesis, affirming that France, with the help of Washington, had sought to achieve this goal. à suppress Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi thinking he was in one of the Migs. « The most credible version is that of responsibility; of the French Air Force, with the complicity of Americans, “with the intention of “The discovery, on July 18, 1980, of the carcass of a Libyan MiG-23 in the mountains of Calabria (southern Italy) also fueled the debate. this hypothesis. According to Giuliano Amato, the national secretary of the Italian Socialist Party at the time Bettino Craxi, reputedly close to Colonel Gaddafi, would have had «wind » of danger for him if he entered Italian airspace and would have warned him.

Gaddafi had accused the Americans for having sought to à kill him

On Twitter, Bettino Craxi's son confirmed; Saturday that his father had warned Muammar Gaddafi. “But in 1986”, six years after the disaster, when he was Prime Minister, he said.

In 2003, Colonel Gaddafi accused him of the Americans for having then sought to à To kill him. Paris and Washington have always denied this. any involvement of their devices in this tragedy. “The Americans were convinced that I’ aboard this aircraft (the MiG-23). “That’s why they shot him,” he said.

Paris and Washington have always denied it

Giuliano Amato now asks French President Emmanuel Macron to “wash away the shame that weighs on France” either “by demonstrating that this thesis is unfounded, or, if it is confirmed, by presenting the most sincere apologies to Italy and the families of the victims. This affair has sparked à there are infinite suppositions and hypotheses but the responsibilities and circumstances of the disaster have not been clarified. established. And Paris and Washington have always denied this. any involvement of their devices in the drama.

A criminal trial against several senior Italian military officials, suspected of having hidden information in this case, ended definitively in 2007 with their acquittal before the Court of Cassation. Then Roman magistrates reopened the investigation into Ustica in 2008. following statements by former leader Francesco Cossiga, 81, who said that a French missile had shot down the Italian DC-9.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said called Giuliano Amato à; bring concrete elements to the table his accusations. “I ask President Amato, in addition to his deductions, to let us know if he is in possession of elements that would allow us to reconsider the conclusions of justice and Parliament , and put them up to date the government's disposal,” she said.