Italian Plane Crashes, Sinks
Rescuers Thursday scrambled to save passengers and crew trapped in a sinking twin-prop plane after it overshot a runway at Genoa airport and plunged into the Mediterranean Sea.
Four people among the 27 passengers and four crewmembers were killed in the accident, and others were injured. Firefighters with diving gear pulled two dead passengers from the plane, as it began to sink. Two other people died at the hospital.
An official at Genoa's Cristoforo Colombo airport said the four dead were a stewardess, two male passengers and an elderly woman.
The other 27 people on board were rescued. One was thought to be in serious condition.
Some passengers swam from the German-built Dornier Do-328 twin-prop jet after it hit the water. Others were pulled from the fuselage by scuba divers as the plane sank.
The Minerva Airlines plane had been attempting to land at Genoa's Cristoforo Colombo airport, which hugs the coastline outside the port city in northern Italy near the border with France.
One airport official gave the length of the runway the plane was attempting to approach as 3,025 yards, which he described as more than adequate for the turbo-prop to make an easy landing.
The Minerva Airlines plane, which operates some regional flights for Italian flag carrier Alitalia, had taken off from Cagliari at 11:00 a.m. local time and had been due to fly on to Trieste after its Genoa stopover.
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