Plane Crashes Into Milan Skyscraper
Updated from 1:56 p.m. EDT
A single-engine plane crashed into a skyscraper in central Milan, Italy, on Thursday, setting the upper section of the 32-story Pirelli building on fire,
Reuters
reported. Four people were reported killed and dozens injured.
The pilot of the single-engine Rockwell Commander A112 plane was identified by Italian civil aviation officials as Luigi Fasulo, 75, of Switzerland, who was known to people at Magadino Airport, near Locarno, Switzerland, local TSI television said.
Italian officials have stated the crash likely was an accident. The images of a burning skyscraper quickly prompted fears of terrorism and comparisons with the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York on Sept. 11. Financial markets sustained a shock upon news of the crash.
"He wasn't able to land so he swung toward the city, something he absolutely shouldn't have done," said Alfredo Roma, head of Italy's civil aviation authority, CNN.com reported.
RAI, the Italian television network, reported Fasulo was en route from Locarno to Rome and issued an SOS about a technical problem before hitting the 24th and 25th floors of the concrete structure.
The network said the building was evacuated and 35 to 40 people were hospitalized, many with broken bones.
CNN
reported that people trapped on the 21st floor were rescued.
Eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud explosion (about 11:45 a.m. New York time, 5:45 p.m. Italian time), from the office block, which houses the administrative offices of the local Lombardy region and is next to the city's central train station.
"I heard a strange bang so I went to the window and outside I saw the windows of the Pirelli building blown out and then I saw smoke coming from them," Gianluca Liberto, an engineer who was working in the area, told
Reuters
.
Some 1,200 people work in the building known as the Pirelli skyscraper, but the Italian tire and cable company does not operate out of the building. The building houses Italian government offices. It also is a symbol of Milan, Italy's financial capital.
