Technical failure or human error, sabotage or hostile act unlikely. The day after the crash of the Italian helicopter in a plowed field in Bosnia, the hunt is on to find the causes.
The military prosecutor's office has opened an investigation, while a commission of defense experts has already arrived on site to reconstruct the dynamics of the accident: useful elements will come from the testimonies of those on board and from the analysis of the wreckage. Meanwhile, it is the moment of pain, with the minister Guido Crosetto flying to visit the 11 wounded hospitalized in two Bosnian hospitals after having accompanied Giorgia Meloni in the morning to the Defense Village set up at the Circus Maximus. There the Prime Minister placed a bundle of roses in homage to the four dead soldiers: the Army sergeants Simone Ruggia and Claudio Marchesi, the lieutenant of the Red Cross Volunteer Military Corps, Franco Adriano Zecchillo and the sergeant of the same corps, Laura Procacci.
"Four lives broken while they served Italy. Today my thoughts are with them and those who love them," Meloni wrote on social media. And there was also political controversy, after a note from the M5s which hypothesized "maintenance deficiencies" of the aircraft. "Jackals", replies the majority. The four bodies could arrive in Rome on Sunday and the funeral could be held on Tuesday, but there is no official announcement yet. As for the injured, Crosetto assured, "seeing the site of the accident, it is a miracle that they were saved: 9 are quite well, two have suffered practically no damage, two have slightly more serious problems: I think they will return very shortly".
The helicopter crashed during a "routine training mission" - probably a medical evacuation - as part of the Eufor Althea operation. 15 soldiers on board. A short film shot from the ground shows it trying to gain altitude, but when it reaches a height of about fifty metres, it twists and falls, hitting the ground with the right side of its tail. In the frames preceding the impact, the legs of one of the soldiers can be seen protruding into the air for a moment from the rear door which remained open. It could be one of the dead. The two deceased sergeants were specialists in charge of the instrumentation located in the 'belly' of the vehicle. Local witnesses indicate that the helicopter had landed in that field shortly before and then tried to take off. That CH-47F is an updated model of the helicopter built over 60 years ago by Boeing. What carries it up are the two rotors, whose blades turn one clockwise and the other anti-clockwise, keeping it stable. One of the rotors may have lost power compared to the other, thus compromising the stability of the helicopter. A control on the pedals of the pilots driving the vehicle may not have worked. Failure is one of the hypotheses, but not the only one. The pilots (two plus a third reserve) underwent long and intense training to drive such a complex vehicle. And Chinook veterans report that "if they hadn't been ready and good we would have had 15 deaths." In fact "they managed to impact almost level, if they had done so head-on or tail-on the vertical speed would have been higher and they would probably all have died". In the statement released yesterday, Eufor explained that the European mission "is conducting a thorough and complete investigation to ascertain the causes of this tragic accident".
In an update of the same note today that passage no longer appears. The Italian Defense will carry out in-depth investigations with its technical commission sent to the site today which will analyze wreckage, memory of on-board instrumentation and listen to witnesses. The Rome military prosecutor's office, for its part, has started an investigation file without any hypothesis of crime which will then be evaluated following the outcome of the investigations. Crosetto visited the 11 injured hospitalized between Brcko and Tuzla. A medical team was also with him. "There are moments - said the minister - in which the pain for those we have lost and the suffering of those who have been injured remind us how much we owe to the women and men who serve Italy". But there was no shortage of controversy after Arnaldo Lomuti and Bruno Marton of M5S called for "full light to be shed on the causes of this tragedy to ascertain whether the probable failure was due to deficiencies in the maintenance of the aircraft or to other reasons". Crosetto's reply was dry: "it is an example unworthy of engaging in politics. The maintenance of those vehicles is superior to that of any civilian vehicle". For Undersecretary Isabella Rauti, it is "an act of profiteering that qualifies those who do it". Giorgio Mulè (FI) also speaks of "a vile act, which dishonors those who commit it above all because it is fueled by ignorance". Paola Chiesa (FdI) is along the same lines: "once again the 5 Star Movement demonstrates that it is unable to distinguish between legitimate political confrontation and the instrumental exploitation of a tragedy".
