A Cessna Citation II, owned by German businessman Hermann Eschmann, was involved in a tragic accident with a Scandinavian Airlines Boeing MD87 on September 8. The eight seat Citation was on loan to Cessna in order to fly a prospective client from Milan to Paris. Pilots Horst Koenigsmann and Martin Schneider, along with Stefano Romanello (Cessna’s European sales representative) and the client, Luca Fossini, all died in the crash which also claimed the lives of all 114 travelling on Copenhagen bound flight SK 686.

In the days following the disaster several people connected with the airport were being investigated for liability, including airport director, Vicenzo Fusco. It was discovered that the Citation entered the wrong runway after communication problems with the control tower. There is speculation that poor sign posting, a non-operational ground control radar, human error and bad weather conditions all combined to send the private jet into the path of the SAS aircraft while it was in the process of taking off. The airliner tried to avoid the jet, but collided with the baggage handling building and exploded.

The dead included a mixture of Italian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, German and British passengers, some had even taken the flight after cancelling prior booked flights due to safety concerns following the events of September 11.

A spokesman for SAS said: “There are many questions surrounding the possible role that the lack of an operating ground radar may have played in the tragic accident with SK686.

“The plane was airborne at 0810 local time, which means that at least the nose wheel had left the ground.” Eschmann was quoted as saying: “The pilots had decades of flying experience, there is no way

that they crossed a runway without permission.”