Ministries must compensate Itavia (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, May 22 - The ministries for defence and transport must compensate failed airline Itavia for their "failure to control and monitor the complex situation that emerged in the skies above Ustica", the Court of Cassation, Italy's highest court, ruled on Tuesday. The Court of Cassation rejected an appeal by the two ministries against an appeals court ruling awarding compensation to Itavia to the tune of 265 million euros. The airline operated the DC-9 that crashed into the sea near the Sicilian island during a flight from Bologna to Palermo on June 27, 1980, as a result of an "outside explosion due to a missile launched by another plane". 81 people died in the crash, and the airline subsequently went bankrupt following a denigratory campaign. Now the supreme court must decide if the compensation awarded on appeal is sufficient or too much.
    The Ustica crash has been one of Italy's enduring mysteries, with some suggesting that the plane got caught in the crossfire of a military aerial dogfight and that a Libyan plane could have been the intended target.
    NATO officials have denied any military activity in the area that night.
    The Court of Cassation found in 2013 that a missile fired from an unknown source was the definite cause of the passengers' deaths, and said that ''cover-ups'' in investigations into Itavia Flight 870 must now be considered ''definitively ascertained''.