Missing plane found in Apennines, 3 Frenchmen on board dead. It was on the border between Emilia and Tuscany

The tourist plane that had been missing in the Apennines since the day before yesterday morning, when it had taken off from Pavullo (Modena), was found by a team of Alpine Rescue, who continued their search on foot. The discovery took place in a ridge area in Tuscany, in the municipality of Fivizzano (Massa Carrara), a few meters from the border with Emilia-Romagna. There were three French people on board, who died. The recovery operations are not yet concluded.

Around 18:00 today, the technicians of the Tuscan Alpine and Speleological Rescue managed to locate on the Tuscan side of Monte Bocco some wreckage attributable to the aircraft whose tracks had been lost on Tuesday afternoon. The technicians of the Emilia-Romagna regional service and a doctor also arrived on site to confirm the death of the three passengers.

The Italian Air Force coordinated all the air search activities. The operations were managed by the civil airport of Lucca, where the international air rescue exercise Grifone was underway, also led by the Italian Air Force, with the collaboration of the Alpine and Speleological Rescue for the coordination of the ground activities. In light of what happened, the exercise – which among its purposes has precisely that of training ground teams and national air rescue departments for this type of intervention – was converted into a real operation, using helicopters – both from the Air Force and from the other participants in the exercise – in various reconnaissance and search missions.