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CNN Live At Daybreak
Investigators Look at Milan Plane Crash
Aired April 19, 2002 - 05:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Investigators in Italy are trying to find out what caused an airplane to slam into Milan's tallest building. The crash killed three people, injured dozens more and raised fears of a September 11 type terrorist attack.
Our Jim Boulden joins us live from Milan with the latest -- good morning.
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
I can tell you that terrorism has certainly been ruled out here. It was a man in a plane that he owned that he took off from Switzerland yesterday afternoon for a very short flight here to Milan, Italy. It was a routine flight. He was a pilot of 30 years. It was his own plane. It was a 15, 20 minute flight at the most. And unfortunately at some point he said that his landing gear did not work.
So the airport told him to circle around on the west end of the city until he could figure out what to do. Unfortunately, they say he went to the north end of the city, which is here where the famous Pirelli Tower, a 32 story building which was built in 1960, is. And unfortunately that plane slammed into the 25th story of that building.
Now, as I said, no terrorism, certainly, but there are questions being raised as to how this could have happened to Italy's tallest building in an area very clearly marked, a very well known building. And so they are investigating up in Switzerland where he was living of whether or not there might have been another motive. We don't know yet. It might just be mechanical failure. It might be something else.
But I can tell you this morning the governor of the Lombardy region was here, the mayor of Milan was here. They were scouring the area, looking around to see what had happened to this building. It used to be the Pirelli tire building and it's now run by the Lombardy region. The regional governor and his staff were here. This is their building. And, of course, they could not go into that building this morning as thousands of people streamed out of the Milan train station here, coming into work. Of course, they were sent elsewhere.
I can tell you the pilot, Luigi Fasulo, an interesting man, 68 years old, 67 years old, we're not sure yet. As I said, he's been flying for 30 years. But his pilot's nickname was Cowboy. This was told to us by the governor this morning. Cowboy was his nickname and we're going to be finding out a bit more of why that was his nickname.
Again, his friends up in Switzerland say they know he is not a terrorist and they do not think he would have done anything like this on purpose and there will be some more investigations onto that. They also said there was not a distress call from the pilot. Originally there had been said that the plane might have been on fire before it hit the building, there might have been a distress call. It was not a distress call. He just said that his landing gear was not working -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jim, we were surfing the Web this morning and we -- in the Italian newspapers they're saying this might have been a suicide. Do you get any indication from what you've found out that it might be?
BOULDEN: Well, the interesting thing about this is that it's the tallest building here. It is the only building of this size and that he flew it right into the 25th floor. It was a precision crash. It did not go in haphazardly. Witnesses said yesterday, last night, when they saw it, that he did not deviate. It did not go around. He was not circling at that time, that he flew directly into the building. And that is why the police are investigating that possibility.
But they're still saying probably a tragic accident, but certainly we've been told the FBI is helping to investigate and certainly they are up in Switzerland right now interviewing people to see if they might be able to learn more about his life -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Jim Boulden reporting live for us from Milan, Italy this morning.
Thank you very much for that update.
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