Milan Crash Plane Was For Sale

The plane that crashed yesterday into a Milan office tower was for sale via an aviation web site offering classified ads on everything from jets to single engine aircraft, The Smoking Gun has learned. The Rockwell Commander 112TC, piloted by 67-year-old Luigi Fasulo, slammed into the landmark Pirelli skyscraper, killing Fasulo and two others. According to a classified ad placed on the Florida-based aviationsbest.com site, the small plane (pictured below) is being offered for sale at $70,000, with the contact person listed as Fasulo's son Giorgio, a Swiss engineer. The plane's tail number, visible in the photo, matches the one released yesterday by Italian government officials probing the crash.

Kelly Jackman, a former commercial pilot who runs aviationsbest.com and several other large boating- and weather-related web sites, told TSG that his firm's computer records show that the Fasulo classified ad was placed months before the Milan crash. Jackman added that while the text of a classified ad could be changed after its publication, the accompanying photo could not be altered or replaced by the person who submitted the ad.

The online ad includes Giorgio Fasulo's e-mail address as well as work and fax numbers for Lenz Engineering, Fasulo's Lugano, Switzerland-based company. According to the classified listing, the plane was located at the airport in Locarno, Switzerland, which is where Luigi Fasulo departed from yesterday on his fateful 20-minute flight to Milan.

According to Italian press reports, another of Fasulo's sons, Marco, stated that the crash was not an accident, claiming that his father was a failed businessman who wanted to commit suicide. "There were people who wanted to ruin him, to destroy him financially, so he committed suicide," Marco Fasulo told La Repubblica. (2 pages)

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