From: Hermit (hidden@lucifer.com)
Date: Thu Apr 18 2002 - 12:25:59 MDT
[b][u]Plane hits Milan skyscraper[/u][/b]
[b]Source: [/b][url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1937000/1937976.stm
]BBC[/url]
[b]Authors: [/b]BBC
[b]Dated: [/b]2002-04-18 18:04Z
A small tourist aircraft has hit a skyscraper in the northern Italian city of Milan.
At least three people have been reported killed and many injured in the crash.
The top floors of the 30-storey Pirelli building caught fire, but some reports say the fire has been extinguished.
The crash occurred at 1745 local time (1545 GMT), when many people working in the building had already left. About 300 were thought to be still at work.
The plane, a Piper private aircraft, made a hole in the east side of the building on the 25th floor.
It had been flying from the town of Locarno just over the border in Switzerland, and the pilot sent an SOS message complaining of problems with landing gear before it crashed.
There were no passengers aboard the plane.
\'Like a bomb\'
\"We have news of three dead and dozens and dozens of injured,\" said Pier Gianni Prosperini, deputy head of the regional government.
There were also reports that several people were trapped in lifts inside the building.
Eyewitnesses said they had heard a loud explosion.
\"It sounded like a bomb. The pavement shook like an earthquake,\" said one eyewitness.
\"It was shocking. The windows shook and the mirrors fell to the floor,\" said Antonio Luccheta, a barber who was working not far from the building at the time.
\'Probably an accident\'
The Pirelli building, which is the city\'s tallest, houses the offices of the local Lombardy government, and is next to the city\'s main railway station.
Police and ambulances rushed to the scene and helicopters were seen circling over the building.
The city\'s stock exchange suspended trading after the incident.
The Italian interior minister said it was \"probably an accident\".
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has set up a crisis centre in Rome to deal with the incident, and put the country\'s air force on full alert \"until the situation becomes clear\".
Piper aircraft are for private use and not for commercial flights.
BBC transport correspondent Tom Symonds says Pipers have a history of safety problems to do with systems failures.
Local authorities do not appear to have grounded other aircraft, which suggests that they do not think the crash was the result of a terrorist attack.
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