Description

On 24 February 2004, a Cessna 550 on an ad hoc commercial air transport flight to from Rome Ciampino to Cagliari in night Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) with line training apparently in progress requested and was approved for a visual approach to the destination runway in use. Shortly afterwards, contact was lost and it was subsequently found that the aircraft had been destroyed by a high speed impact with terrain during descent in ‘dark night’ conditions and the resulting post crash fire with all six occupants killed.

Investigation

The accident was investigated by the ANSV. It was established that the aircraft had not been fitted with a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), Flight Data Recorder (FDR) or GPWS/TAWS and that, because of the low weight of the aircraft, there was no regulatory requirement for any of these items to be fitted.

The aircraft had been chartered at short notice for a medical mission from its base in Milan Linate. This required positioning to the location of a potential recipient of a heart transplant to collect the medical team involved and take them to Rome where a heart suitable for transplant had become available so as to obtain it and return with it to their base to carry out the operation. This had initially involved a positioning flight to Catania where a patient in need of such a transplant had been identified, but shortly after take off from Linate just after 2200 local time, the destination had been changed to Cagliari where an alternative recipient had been designated.