A single-engine plane carrying six passengers and a crew of two crashed into a vacant two-story office building in the municipality of San Donato Milanese on October 3, 2021. No one survived the crash.
As reported by local media RaiNews, the Pilatus PC-12 was being piloted by 68-year old Dan Petrescu, a Romanian billionaire and major real estate developer.
The light aircraft had taken off from Milan’s Linate airport shortly after 1300 local time, and was headed for Olbia in the north of the Italian island of Sardinia.
The crash occurred roughly 11 minutes later in San Donato Milanese, about 10 kilometres from Milan. Eyewitnesses told officials that the aircraft was already in flames when it crashed into the empty two-storey office building that was undergoing renovation.
raga sto tremando, non avete idea, stavo aspettando il pullman a san donato (milano) per tornare a roma e si è tipo schiantato un aereo (?) davanti a noi, un botto assurdo, che paura pic.twitter.com/UgHzg4JeNY
— edoardo (@edoardotwitta) October 3, 2021
According to local media Corriere della Sera, Petrescu’s 65-year-old wife and their son Dan Stefano, 30, were killed, along with five other unidentified people, including two crew members and a child. It is reported that the family was heading to their villa in Olbia, Sardinia, where Petrescu’s 98-year-old mother was waiting for their arrival.
The aircraft is believed to have been purchased in 2015 by Petrescu and Vova Cohn, a former shareholder of the Dinamo Bucharest football club. On September 30, 2021, the aircraft had flown from Bucharest, Romania, to Milan without any problem.
Firefighters who came to the accident scene confirmed to local press that no one else except those on board, had been killed by the crash.
The aircraft’s blackbox has been recovered, and further investigations are underway.