Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 392
Fokker F27 Friendship · Loss of control
From Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO) to Foggia Gino Lisa Airport (FOG)
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 18 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 18
- 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
- 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
- Airline
Fokker F27 Friendship
- Aircraft type
- Fokker F27
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- I-ATIP
- Operator
- Aero Trasporti Italiani
- Onboard fatalities
- 18
- Route
- From Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)To Foggia Gino Lisa Airport (FOG)
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
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
Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 392 was a scheduled Aero Trasporti Italiani flight departing from Rome-Fiumicino Airport with Foggia Airport as its final destination. On 16 April 1972 the Fokker F27 operating the flight crashed about 20 minutes after take-off, killing all 18 occupants.
The accident
Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 392 took off from Rome-Fiumicino at 21:56 local time, after receiving clearance to proceed via Pratica di Mare, Latina and Teano.
Immediately after take-off, the crew contacted Rome Departures, which confirmed the clearance to proceed towards Pratica di Mare, Latina and Teano and instructed the crew to switch to the Pratica di Mare frequency. At 22:00 the crew contacted Rome Departures again, reporting passing from ft to ft and stating difficulty receiving the signal of the Pratica di Mare radio beacon. At 22:04 Flight 392 contacted Rome Control South Rome Terminal Sector reporting crossing flight level 100 and giving 22:10 as the estimated time for reaching Latina. At 22:05, at the crew's request, Flight 392 was cleared to go to ft and was directed towards Teano, avoiding passing via Latina; air traffic control instructed the crew to report reaching ft.
The last communication between Flight 392 and air traffic control took place at 22:08, when the crew reported crossing ft. Air traffic control instructed Flight 392 to transfer to the Teano frequency, receiving no reply. At 22:24, two minutes after the estimate for Teano, Rome Control instructed Flight 392 to switch to the Brindisi Control frequency, receiving no reply.
Investigation and cause
The investigation
Analysing the flight data recorders it was observed that the first 17 minutes of flight were normal. Starting from the eighteenth minute of flight, coinciding with the transition from the climb phase to the cruise phase, negative variations in load factor, altitude and speed were observed. From this moment until impact with the ground the aircraft was subjected to positive and negative variations of load factor, while altitude and speed underwent a further reduction when they had by then stabilised, bringing the aircraft into an abnormal attitude.
On exiting the abnormal attitude, the correlation between variations in indicated airspeed and altitude suggests that the aircraft had entered a phugoid mode. Also on exiting the abnormal attitude the aircraft entered a slow right turn, with a rate of turn of less than 1° per second, which continued for the rest of the flight. In the final phase of the flight no traces of phugoid motion were noted, but the recorded parameters indicated that the aircraft had entered a dive with a descent angle of about 20°.
During the final phase of the flight the crew did not report any abnormal situation.
Analysing the wreckage of the aircraft it was not possible to determine whether any on-board systems had suffered damage that could have caused the accident.
Causes
The cause of the event was not determined with certainty. On the basis of the analyses of the wreckage and the flight data, the commission of inquiry hypothesised that immediately after reaching ft the aircraft entered an area of severe turbulence with downdrafts of considerable intensity. The investigators ruled out that meteorological factors alone caused the event, hypothesising a concomitant event mainly concerning the flight controls, which caused the abnormal attitudes or damage to the aircraft.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Italian Wikipedia article “Volo Aero Trasporti Italiani 392” (revision 150282061, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Italian Wikipedia article: Volo Aero Trasporti Italiani 392
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150282061 · 2026-04-19 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- it Wikipedia article "Volo Aero Trasporti Italiani 392" (page 10956800, revision 150282061), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- 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)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Italian Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.