2021 Milan Pilatus PC-12 crash
Pilatus PC-12/47E · Crashed after take-off, possible task saturation
From Milano Linate Airport (LIN) to Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport (OLB)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA22WA089
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 8
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Pilatus PC-12/47E
- Aircraft type
- Pilatus PC-12
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- YR-PDV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- 8
- Route
- From Milano Linate Airport (LIN)To Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport (OLB)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 3 October 2021, a Romanian private plane crashed into a building in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. All eight occupants of the aircraft were killed, including the Romanian businessman and billionaire Dan Petrescu, who owned and piloted the plane.
Incident
At 13:03 CEST on 3 October 2021, a small private plane carrying two crew and six passengers departed Milan's Linate Airport destined for Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport on Sardinia, both locations being in Italy. Less than two minutes after take-off, the auto-pilot was disconnected; flying manually while climbing through cloud, the pilot lost control of the aircraft, and it descended rapidly until it crashed into an incomplete building near San Donato station in Milan. All eight on board were killed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
On 12 November 2021, all data contained in the lightweight data recorder (LDR) of the plane recovered after its wreck were successfully downloaded at the technological laboratories of the National Agency for the Safety of Flight (ANSV). In-depth and extensive analysis carried out by ANSV of the recovered data highlighted the unavailability of data about the flight or recordings referable to the flight that ended with the accident. In fact, from the maintenance documentation acquired by ANSV, it was discovered that the aforementioned LDR was inefficient even before the flight of the accident.
The ANSV released the final report on June 21, 2024, acknowledging that the loss of data from the lightweight data recorder (LDR) made the determination of cause with certainty impossible. The ANSV proposed that the most likely cause is a loss of control during a SID departure in daylight IMC conditions where the pilot is flying manually, which probably resulted in task saturation and the focus of the pilot probably shifted from basic flight control to navigation. The ANSV believed that a recurring lack of pilot training could also be contributed to the cause.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2021 Milan Pilatus PC-12 crash” (revision 1361726916, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2021 Milan Pilatus PC-12 crash
- Revision
- 1361726916 · 2026-06-29 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q108814962
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record GAA22WA089
- Event ID
- 20220204104593
- Case number
- GAA22WA089
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2021 Milan Pilatus PC-12 crash" (page 68877469, revision 1361726916); merged with NTSB case GAA22WA089 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record GAA22WA089
- Operation
- "private plane" in the article's opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2021 Milan Pilatus PC-12 crash" and NTSB case GAA22WA089, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.