PASSENGERS on the plane which killed a man when he was sucked into its engine have recalled the horrifying moment they heard and felt it happen.
Andrea Russo, a 35-year-old builder from Calcinate, Italy, tragically lost his life after he supposedly ran onto the runway at Milan’s Orio al Serio Airport, heading towards a plane that was ready to take off.
People onboard the Volotea plane revealed that there was a dreadful noise as his body passed through the jets.
Carmen Garcia, a passenger from Spain, mentioned to La Nueva España that the aircraft was “about to take off with the engines on” when “someone came running towards us.”
She said: “Suddenly, we heard a noise and a bang.
“Some people saw something through the window and put their hands to their heads.
“They told us it was best not to look out, because what was happening was very unpleasant.”
“Then the fire brigade, ambulances and police started to arrive.”
Russo was not a passenger on the plane and had no association with the airline, according to Volotea.
He is believed to have arrived at the airport without a ticket and broken in by driving the wrong way down a road.
Reports indicate that he abandoned his red Fiat 500, ran into the airport terminal, bypassed a security door to reach the tarmac, and then headed straight for the aircraft.
Witnesses reported that two Border Police gave chase but were unable to catch up with him.
The Spanish passenger said that, moments later, the pilot spoke over the tannoy in a “shaken” voice, confirming there had been a “very serious problem involving a person”.
Daniel Isla, a Chilean national living in Italy who spoke after travelling to Asturias on holiday with his family, told the paper: “I didn’t see anything but heard a tremendous noise in the engine turbine.
“We didn’t know what had happened at first but then the pilot came out and told us a tragedy had occurred and there’d been a terrible accident and someone had been sucked into the engine.
“It was a feeling of incredulity initially because we couldn’t believe what had happened.
“We wanted to think it was something else until we realised it was true.”
Another, Ana Sanchis, recalled that flight attendants urged them to pull down their shutters and not look out of the window.
She added that the passengers had to disembark from the side of the plane where the incident happened, with “firemen forming a corridor all the way down and everything covered up”.
“It was horrible,” she said.
A male passenger who was boarding another plane near the Volotea aircraft had a full view of the horror.
He told Italian news outlet La Repubblica: “I wasn’t on that plane, I was boarding another plane next to it and we saw everything.
“He ran towards the right side. The he ran and [was] sucked by the left side motor.
“I can’t describe it as pleasant’, he added.
As the investigation got underway, public prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli said: “We are investigating on any possible relationships with the airport or the world of aeroplanes.
“In the car with which he arrived at the airport, full of all kinds of material, we have not found anything that could provide any kind of explanation.”
Following the incident, airliner Voltea took to X, stating: ‘We regret to confirm flight V73511 from BGY-OVD was involved in an incident at Milan-Bergamo Airport at 10:35h.
‘One person not onboard and not affiliated with the company was seriously injured.
‘All 154 passengers and 6 crew are safe. A new flight is scheduled for 15:55’.
