Human error blamed for Milan crash

Debris on the Milan Linate runway

MILAN, Italy -- Human error and bad weather have been blamed for Italy's worst civil aviation accident, but there are also accusations of negligence.

Italy's second-largest pilots' union said the accident could have been avoided if the ground radar had been activated.

A total of 118 people died when a Scandinavian Airways System aircraft collided with a small private plane on the runway at Milan's Linate airport before take-off on Monday.

The plane, which had been travelling at an estimated speed of 320 kilometres per hour (200 m.p.h.) was sent careering into a baggage-handling hanger where its laden fuel tanks, burst into flames.

Politicians, pilots and newspaper editorial writers accused airport bosses of negligence after it was learned that the ground radar, which can track aircraft on runways, had not been activated.

All commercial and private airlines that use Linate had been told at the beginning of the month that the radar was not working.

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In such circumstances, the "iron rule" in low visibility is that all aircraft are prohibited from crossing the runway, said Osvaldo Gammino, chief of the Milan branch of the Airline Operator Committee, an international aviation body that groups together airlines at individual airports.

Aircraft must instead circle around the runway, he added.

But Vincenzo Fusco, director of Linate airport, told Reuters news agency: "Ground radar is neither indispensable nor necessary and is not required by European or Italian laws."

Fifty-six of the SAS Flight SK686 victims headed for Copenhagen were Italians, 16 were Danes, four were Finns, officials said.

The UK Foreign Office is attempting to clarify whether two Britons were on board. The nationalities of the others were still being determined.

Two of the passengers were honeymooners who had decided to fly to Scandinavia after tour operators had dissuaded the couple from their first choice of Egypt, on the grounds that it was a volatile area.

Four groundworkers died in the accident, as did the two German pilots of the eight-seater Cessna plane and its two Italian businessmen passengers who were being taken on a promotional flight.

Three investigations have been opened by magistrates.

The Italian government said the accident was likely to have been caused by "human error" compounded by poor visibility as a result of thick fog.

The Cessna had been told to taxi around by air traffic controllers, but the Citation II crossed onto the take-off runway by mistake into the path of the SAS airliner, an MD-87.

The remains of the SAS jet

The airport will remain closed until at least 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Tuesday, airport officials said.

SAS staff held a one-minute's silence for the victims, including the six crew members, who died in the airline's -- and Italy's -- worst aviation accident.

Troels Rasmussen, spokesman for the Stockholm-based SAS, the jointly owned carrier of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, said: "It's the worst day in our history."

More than 100 bodies have been found, of which 33 have been identified. Twelve bodies were still trapped in the wreckage -- eight inside the jet and the four groundworkers -- on Tuesday.

The impact of the plane crashing into a concrete pillar was so strong it brought the roof down. A crane had to be brought in to try and remove it.

Flights have temporarily been diverted to Milan's largest airport, Malpensa, and an airport at the nearby city of Bergamo.

Until now, the worst Italian aviation disaster was in 1972, when an Alitalia DC-8 crashed into a mountain near Palermo, Sicily, killing 115 people.