Sigonella air crash
United States Air Force Lockheed C-141 Starlifter · Engine failure
From Sigonella Navy Air Base (LICZ) to Diego Garcia Air Base, Indian Ocean
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
- 9 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 9
- 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
- Military
Lockheed C-141 Starlifter
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed C-141
- 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
- 64-0624
- Operator
- United States Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 9
- Route
- From Sigonella Navy Air Base (LICZ)To Diego Garcia Air Base, Indian Ocean
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Sigonella air crash is an air disaster that occurred on 12 July 1984, at 14:45, when a US Air Force Lockheed C 141-B "Starlifter" crashed in the vicinity of Lake Biviere, on the outskirts of Lentini in the province of Syracuse.
Probable consequences of the accident
Several documents available on the internet claim a high incidence of leukaemia cases in the area of Lentini, Francofonte, Carlentini and Scordia; an incidence that is about three times higher than the national average, with particular reference to children aged 0 to 4 and the elderly, both male.
The studies of Professor Elio Insirello highlight a compatibility between depleted uranium and the diseases that developed in Lentini in the following years. In support of his thesis, the biologist also cites the correlation between the time elapsed since the accident and the extent of tumour diseases which, in the case of radioactive contamination, appear after 5, 10 years. Precisely between 1992 and 1995, an anomalous increase in leukaemia cases was observed in Lentini.
The judiciary therefore obtained the professor's statements in order to look further into this matter and verify a possible link between the accident and the causes for which the highest percentage of child mortality from cancer in Italy has been recorded in the Lentini area.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Italian Wikipedia article “Incidente aereo di Sigonella” (revision 149399234, 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: Incidente aereo di Sigonella
- Article
- Incidente aereo di Sigonella
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 149399234 · 2026-02-15 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q3797656
- 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 "Incidente aereo di Sigonella" (page 1391091, revision 149399234), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia article: the date in its opening sentence (the infobox gives none to the day)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- 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
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- 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.