The Ivrea Prosecutor's Office has entered Oscar Del Dò, 36, in the register of suspects. The pilot was at the controls of the Aermacchi MB-339 "Pony 4" aircraft (registration MM54539/4) of the Italian Acrobatic Team (Pan) "Frecce Tricolori" of the Italian Air Force (AMI), which crashed on 16 September 2023, near the "Sandro Pertini" airport of Turin-Caselle. Five-year-old Laura Origliasso lost her life in the accident.

The notification of the notice of guarantee to the soldier was ordered by the chief prosecutor Gabriella Viglione and the deputy prosecutor Valentina Bossi. The charge against him concerns the crimes of disaster and manslaughter. "A necessary act", explain the magistrates, which is justified by the need to carry out some technical checks. In addition to Del Dò, all the pilots of the Italian Aerobatic Team, who were starting their performance above the skies of San Francesco al Campo (Turin), will be heard.

According to a first reconstruction of the accident, which also takes into account some testimonies, after the "Pony 4" plane became ungovernable, perhaps due to an engine failure caused by a bird-strike, that is the impact with one or more birds, the pilot Oscar Del Dò, before ejecting himself from the cockpit, would have directed the crash of the aircraft to avoid the houses located near the airport grounds.

Before losing altitude, the pilot reportedly warned "that he had an engine problem" and that he had to exit formation. Now the Ivrea investigators are examining the security measures adopted by the Italian Air Force (AMI) and those of the Turin airport management company (Sagat), which controls the "Sandro Pertini" airport in Caselle. For this purpose, documents were acquired in the Rivolto (Udine) headquarters of the "Frecce Tricolori" and in the offices of the manager of the Turin airport.

On the same topic, see also the article published by AVIONEWS.