The family had come to watch the military acrobatic patrol. The cause of the crash could be a bird strike.
This Saturday a terrible tragedy occurred in Italy, near Turin. A five-year-old girl died when a military air patrol plane crashed.
The aerobatic patrol was in training when the accident occurred. One of the planes, an MB-339, suddenly crashed during takeoff. As the plane fell to the ground, it crashed into a car with four people on board. The little girl was fatally injured and the three other people, including her 9-year-old brother, were injured. The family had just come to watch the patrol outside a demonstration that was supposed to take place on Sunday but was canceled.
A bird strike?
The pilot was able to get out, but was also injured but his life was not in danger.
\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 Terrible accident at Turin airport in which a plane belonging to the Frecce Tricolori, the Italian patrol, crashed during rehearsals for the Air Force’s centenary celebrations.
The pilot ejected safely.
\u25ab\ufe0fA 5-year-old girl died on the ground… pic.twitter.com/YtC4wBiOjO
– Air Plus News (@airplusnews) September 16, 2023
“The patrol had barely taken off (…) when, for reasons currently unknown, the aircraft piloted by Major Oscar Del Do lost altitude and fell to the ground,” said a press release from the ministry. “The pilot managed to eject shortly before impact. It is currently not possible to confirm the causes of the accident. One of the hypotheses considered, given the dynamics of the event, is an impact on a bird during the initial phases of takeoff,” it says. This type of accident is called “bird strike”.