All 114 passengers and crew on two planes that collided at Milan's Linate airport on Monday, excluding the four cargo handlers who were pronounced dead, died in the accident, Italian Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi said.
The four cargo handlers in a baggage zone that was hit by the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) jet are missing, he told a news conference at the airport.
"The rescue teams went into action immediately but it was impossible to save anyone in the planes. They are all dead," Lunardi said.
The SAS MD-87 jet with 104 passengers and six crew, bound for Copenhagen, crashed into a baggage hangar after colliding with a German Cessna plane with four people on board. Four cargo handlers were taken to hospital, Lunardi said. They were pronounced dead later on.
The Italian Interior Ministry said a combination of human error and bad weather were almost certainly to blame for the disaster. Terrorism was ruled out as a possible cause.
(China Daily 10/08/2001)
