What happened
During a night flight originating from Rome-Fiumicino, an Alitalia aircraft began its descent toward Palermo-Punta Raisi Airport under conditions of good visibility. The crew was performing a standard VOR/DME approach when the aircraft reached an altitude of approximately 150 feet above the sea. As the plane approached within 3 km of the coastline, the pilot-in-command executed a minor left turn to align with runway 21. While traveling at 150 knots, the tip of the left wing made contact with the water, causing the aircraft to crash into the sea.
The accident resulted in 108 fatalities (comprising all five crew members and 103 passengers) and left 21 survivors, who were subsequently recovered by local fishermen.
Findings
Investigations revealed that the final segment of the approach was conducted using visual references with a relatively low rate of descent. The descent was initiated prematurely, and the crew descended below the minimum descent altitude after failing to complete several items on the approach checklist. A significant contributing factor was the potential malfunction of altimeters, which may have provided erroneous readings due to failures in the warning flag systems. It was noted that issues regarding these specific altimeter warning flags had been previously reported to the airline.