Mattarella urges pursuit of full truth on Ustica air crash

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 27 - The failure to get to the bottom of the 1980 Ustica plane crash continues to represent a "wound" for Italians, President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella said on the anniversary of the disaster on Tuesday.
    "Full truth has not been established in the proper places, and this still represents a wound for the sensitivity of citizens," said Matterella of the mysterious air disaster known in Italy as the 'Ustica Massacre' (Strage di Ustica) that left 81 people dead, and which has been the object of numerous investigations, legal actions and accusations, including claims of conspiracy.
    "The results obtained (so far) urge us not to give up, to search for the missing pieces, to overcome the contradictions and thus respond to the need for truth and justice," continued the head of state.
    On June 27, 1980, a Bologna-Palermo flight operated by the now-defunct Itavia airline crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea between the islands of Ponza and Ustica, killing all 81 people, including 13 children, on board, in circumstances that remain unclear.
    "The Republic is close to the families of the victims and shares their insurmountable grief," said Matterella, adding that when the tragedy occurred "it was difficult to open up gaps to the truth" also due to "lack of transparency and ambiguity".
    "The commitment of the family members was invaluable. (It is) to their tenacity and the professionalism of women and men of the institutions (that) we owe the steps taken to disprove the initial hypothesis of a structural failure of the aircraft and reconstruct the dynamics of the events," continued the president.
    Hypotheses on the causes of what has been one of Italy's enduring mysteries have included a terrorist bombing and a missile strike during a military aerial dogfight, with a Libyan plane possibly being the intended target.
    In 2013 the Court of Cassation found that a missile fired from an unknown source was the definite cause of the disaster, and said that "cover-ups" in investigations into Itavia Flight 870 must now be considered "definitively ascertained". (ANSA).