La stampa italiana ed americana (ad esempio USA Today : http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/04/18/milan-plane-crash.htm) continuano a ritenere, la mattina del 19 aprile, che l'impatto sul Pirellone sia frutto di un incidente; ma a mezzogiorno, il colpo di scena: alcuni media cominciano a parlare di suicidio, prendendo spunto da un articolo apparso su "Repubblica". Il bello è che la stampa islamica (che certo a seguito dell'incidente ha drizzato le antenne, pensando a coinvolgimenti terroristici e a tutto ciò che poteva seguirne) sapeva già che si era trattato di un suicidio! Come mai, dunque, in casa nostra siamo costretti a leggere altrove, come realmente (pare) siano andate le cose? Inutile dire che tutto cio' sta insinuando il dubbio, nei netsurfers, che i media nazionali non ce la stiano raccontando tutta. E' solo un sospetto cospirazionista, ma siamo sicuri che quest'atteggiamento ambiguo genererà a breve molte leggende urbane...

Ecco cosa scriveva già in mattina, prima die media italiani, il Khaleej Times (www.khaleejtimes.com) di Dubai (Emirati Arabi Uniti), via AFP:

ROME - The pilot of the plane that crashed into Milan's tallest building killing himself and two others was a failed businessman who wanted to end his life, his son said in comments in Friday's daily La Repubblica. The paper quoted Luigi Fasulo's son Marco and a friend, identified only as Franco, who both insisted the incident Thursday that immediately raised the spectre of a new September 11-type attack was a suicide.

"What do you mean an accident? It was a suicide, a suicide, I'm telling you. There were people who wanted to ruin him, to destroy him financially, so he committed suicide," Marco Fasulo said, without elaborating. The friend Franco, meanwhile, recounted his last conversation with the pilot on Sunday. "I am ruined, they used up everything I had, it's a group located here, they got more than a million dollars (1.1 million euros) from me," the friend quoted Luigi as saying.

The aircraft, a light Piper Air Commander, crashed into the upper floors of the landmark, 30-storey Pirelli tower, Milan's tallest building in the city center, around 1600 GMT Thursday. The other two dead were women employed in the tower.

After the initial scare of a new terrorist attack, Italian Interior Minister Claudio Scajola said later Thursday the crash was "probably an accident" amid reports that the pilot had sent a distress message to the control tower of Milan's Linate airport shortly before the crash. - AFP

Ed addirittura, via Reuters, sapeva prima di noi che i morti erano saliti a cinque...

MILAN - A small tourist plane smashed into Milan's tallest skyscraper yesterday, killing at least five people and injuring scores in what Italian officials said was an apparent accident, not a re-run of September 11.

An official at the local air transport office said the pilot had reported problems with his plane's undercarriage as he approached Milan in bright, late afternoon sunshine. Air traffic controllers lost contact with him as he circled the city ahead of trying to land at around 5.45pm.

The skyscraper was torn open across at least two storeys. It houses local government offices, and towers above the northern city's central train station.

"We heard the sound of propellers as if from a small aircraft and then there was a huge bang. Everything was flying through the air - paper, furniture," said an office worker.

The Interior Ministry said it was probably an accident, scotching initial fears that the crash was a copycat of September's hijacked airliner suicide attacks on US cities. "The first information we have points to an accident," Interior Minister Claudio Scajola told reporters. "We have news of five dead and dozens and dozens injured," said Pier Gianni Prosperini, the deputy head of Milan's regional government.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi headed home from Bulgaria to convene Italy's crisis unit in response, a spokesman said. Swiss officials said he had taken off from Locarno, a Swiss town near the Italian border. - Reuters