The Supreme Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeal in Italy, has rejected an appeal by the ministries for Defence and Transport against an order for them to pay 265 million euros in compensation to failed airline Itavia over the Ustica air disaster that killed 81 people.
The ministries have been found negligent for failing to properly control and monitor the skies above Ustica.
The Itavia DC-9, carrying 77 passengers and four crew members, was presumably shot down by a missile during a dogfight involving US and French war planes and Libyan MIG fighters above the the Mediterranean island of Ustica. A crashed Libyan MIG was found a month after the incident on the Sila Mountains in Calabria. While the missile theory has now been accepted as the actual cause of the Itavia DC-9 crash, offenders are yet to be identified.
In this interview, the daughter of Itavia founder Aldo Davanzali, Luisa Davanzali, talks about the Court's decision and recalls the tragic events of that fatal 27 June 1980.
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