It took more than ten hearings and five years of trial to clarify the responsibilities for the plane crash that on 28 October 2017 had - for a few hours - divided Italy in two.
That day, a tourist plane from the Rome Aeroclub, just taken off from the Urbe airport, had in fact fallen on the high-speed tracks in the Rome-Florence section at via Salaria 746, first creating the block and very serious delays on the main the country's rail link line.
Two people on board the aircraft (a Tecnam P92 I-CORT brand) had sustained serious injuries, but the accident could have caused a massacre.
Immediately after the crash of the aircraft, both the investigations of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome (coordinated by Dr. Pietro Pollidori) and the investigation of the National Flight Safety Agency (ANSV) began.
At the outcome of the investigations - in the course of which it was nevertheless ascertained that the aircraft had suffered a sudden drop in power right at take-off, forcing the pilot to make a very difficult emergency maneuver - the Public Prosecutor had asked for the pilot to be indicted, Gianfranco Requedaz to answer the accusation of an aviation disaster.
The pilot was thus sent to trial before the college of the VIII Criminal Section of the Court of Rome.
During the trial, the pilot - assisted by the lawyers Guido Simonetti and Simone Zancani of Venice, specialized in defense in aeronautical accidents - defended himself by demonstrating with his consultants (including a pilot former commander of the Frecce Tricolori) that the crash of the aircraft it was not due to a pilot error, but to a serious mechanical failure of the aircraft that the pilot had just hired from the Aeroclub of Rome.
The formula with which the Court yesterday acquitted the rider - "for not having committed the deed"- confirmed the correctness of the maneuvers performed by the pilot following the malfunction of the aircraft engine.