Small plane slams into Milan building, killing three people

MILAN, Italy -- A small plane, in flames and reporting mechanical problems, smashed into the tallest skyscraper in Italy's financial capital Thursday, killing at least three people and injuring 60. The crash initially raised fears of a Sept. 11-type terror attack, but the Italian government said it was probably an accident.

The aircraft punched through the 25th floor of the slim Pirelli building, gutting two floors and starting a fire that sent smoke pouring out into the clear blue sky over downtown Milan. Emergency workers helped bloodied men in business suits while firefighters worked to put out the blaze.

"I heard something like the engine of a plane dying out, and then I heard a terrible explosion," said Raffaele Taccogna, who was tending bar at the nearby Atlantic Hotel. "I certainly thought of the September attacks in the United States," he said. "It really looked like the same thing."

The pilot -- who was on a 20-minute flight from Locarno, Switzerland, to Milan -- had started landing procedures at Milan's Linate airport when air traffic controllers alerted him that he wasn't lined up with the runway, the Italian air traffic controller's association said late Thursday.

Mechanical problem

The pilot reported "a little problem with the landing gear," and the control tower instructed him to move to the west of the airport until it was fixed, a statement from the association said, adding that the pilot didn't issue a distress signal as officials had previously reported. The control tower contacted the pilot again after seeing he was drifting to the north, in the wrong direction.

The pilot said he was fixing the problem, and the tower instructed him to move back into position to land. But the pilot again didn't get into the right position, it said. The control tower then lost contact.

One witness, Fabio Sunik, said the plane was on fire before it crashed. The plane did not try to change course, "but just went straight in," said Sunik, a sports journalist. "Then I saw rubble falling from the building."

Some 1,300 people work in the building, which houses local government offices, but it was not known how many where still there when the crash took place -- not long after working hours ended.

Milan's main train station, about 200 yards away from the skyscraper, was evacuated for security reasons, and no trains were running from there. After-hours trading was suspended on the Milan stock market, which was already closed for the day.

The U.S. Consulate in Milan, about a half-mile) from the scene, evacuated the few staffers still in the office as a safety precaution, said Tom Skipper, consulate spokesman.

President Bush was quickly notified of the collision, press secretary Ari Fleischer said. The FBI was assisting in the investigation.