June 27, 1980, one of the greatest Italian mysteries.
- Aviation Eagle
- Jul 8
- 2 min read
There are 24 days left from today (June 3) until the 45th anniversary of one of the greatest air disasters and mysteries of Italian aviation. On June 27, 1980, a DC-9 left Bologna's Guglielmo Marconi airport for Palermo's Falcone-Borsellino airport, where it never arrived.
I-TIGI (INDIA TANGO INDIA GOLF INDIA, in aeronautical alphabet) is the registration number of the DC-9 of the ITAVIA company, which that day would have operated flight IH870 between Bologna and Palermo.
At 20:59 the DC-9 was between the islands of Ponza and Ustica. That same evening a military exercise was underway (ACCORDING TO WHAT HAS BEEN COMMUNICATED) between Italian, French and American fighters. Furthermore, in the Gulf of Naples there was an American aircraft carrier, the USS Saratoga , whose radio beacon was turned off.
According to the theory supported by Judge Priore , who will lead the investigation, it was not an exercise, but a NATO mission with the aim of shooting down the plane whereGaddafi , the then head of the Libyan government, was presumed to be present. According to this hypothesis, in the sky that evening there were, in addition to the fighters mentioned above, also 3 Libyan MIGs.
According to the theory, theMiG-23 hid underneath the DC-9 and a French fighter fired a missile, hitting both.
Other theories such as the Toilet bomb, are supported by the Government and associations such as the American NTSB . Despite this, however, the radio beacon registers were never delivered or those delivered were falsified/June 27 was missing. Therefore, after almost half a century, the mystery of the DC-9 has never come to light.
There were 81 people on board, including 77 passengers and 4 crew members. THERE WERE NO SURVIVORS.
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