- ACCIDENT DETAILS
Date: October 08, 2001
Time: 0810
Location: Milan, Italy
Operator: Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) / Private
Flight #: 686 / -
Route: Milan - Copenhagen / Milan - Paris
AC Type: MD-87 / Cessna 525A Citation II
Registration: SE-DMA / D-IEVX
cn / ln: 53009/ 525A-0036
Aboard: 114   (passengers:106  crew:8)
Fatalities: 114   (passengers:106  crew:8)
Ground: 4
Summary: The MD-87 aircraft was taking off from Linate Airport in fog and poor visibility when it struck a German Cessna Citation II business jet. The MD-87 rotated for takeoff and did make it into the air for 9 seconds, but was too damaged to sustain flight. The plane then swerved off the runway and collided with the airport's baggage handling building, bursting into flames. The Cessna, which was about to take off for Paris, entered the active runway by mistake, after having been told by the tower to enter a different taxiway and hold short of the runway. One hundred four passengers and 6 crew on the MD-87 and 2 passengers and 2 crew on the Citation were killed along with 4 on the ground. The MD-87 was named Lage Viking. Caused largely by human error and poorly followed safety procedures and improper terminology used by the tower. Communication between the aircraft and the tower had been "in English and Italian," as opposed to aviation standards that only English be spoken. In addition, despite the poor visibility and inadequately marked airport landmarks, the control tower operators failed to ask the Cessna to read back his instructions to make sure they were understood. There was no ground radar, runway motion sensors were turned off and it took 20 minutes before anyone realized the two planes had collided.
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