Former Italian prime minister blames Paris for 1980 crash

Rome [Italy], September 3: More than 40 years after the mysterious crash of an Italian passenger plane with 81 fatalities, the case is making headlines again.
Former Italian prime minister Giuliano Amato blamed France for the crash in Saturday's edition of the daily newspaper La Repubblica and demanded an apology. Amato argued that the plane had been hit by a misguided French missile.
The actual plan had been to kill the then Libyan ruler Moamer Gaddafi on board a fighter jet.
The Itavia airline plane crashed into the Mediterranean near the small Italian island of Ustica on June 27, 1980. None of the 81 people on board the DC9 survived. To this day, it is not clear what actually happened.
In addition to the theory of an accidental shooting down, there is also speculation about an air battle between aircraft from the Libyan air force and NATO planes as well as a bomb hidden on board.
There have already been several court cases on the incident, without any clarity being achieved.
Amato, who is now 85 years old, was involved in the case in the mid-1980s within the government before he became prime minister in 1992-93 and 2000-01.
In an interview with Repubblica, the politician, who is now without a party affiliation, said that the "most likely variant" was that the passenger plane had been accidentally shot down by a French fighter jet.
Source: Qatar Tribune