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Military - in brief (8)

01 November 1999

Italy: Cermis - airbase captain cleared: Maurizio Block, the Padua military prosecuting magistrate investigating former Aviano airbase captain Orfeo Durigon in relation to the Cermis disaster (see Statewatch vol 9 no 2, 3 & 4), has argued that the case should be closed. He concluded that the Aviano chain of command had no responsibility for authorising foreign low altitude training flights. Under present regulations, the Italian command has no specific authority to carry out substantial checks on operational and training flights by foreign planes stationed at Aviano airbase. Furthermore, the Prowler plane in question was in transit at Aviano, and was therefore operating outside of the norms of the US-Italian bilateral treaty. Block stressed that Durigon's duties were formal, involving air traffic assistance and formal controls. The US commander is responsible for informing his Italian counterpart about scheduled flight activity. Block added that the US chain of command has vowed to establish tighter relations with Italian authorities. The Bari military tribunal investigating colonel Celestino Carratu will be responsible for closing the judicial proceedings into a tragedy Block was quoted as describing as "nothing, a story that's dead and buried". The proceedings relate to confirmation of the authorisation of flights which broke NATO rules on low altitude exercises, issued from the control centre in Martina Franca. However, after Block's conclusions on the lack of control powers by Italian military authorities over flights by foreign aircraft on Italian soil, a different outcome seems unlikely.

Il Manifesto 30.7.99.