Museo per la Memoria di Ustica

On 27 June, 1980, a DC9 passenger jet, Itavia Flight 870 flying from Bologna to Palermo crashed into the Tyrrhenian sea north of Palermo near the island of Ustica, killing all 81 people on board. Exactly what happened is one of the great mysteries of aviation.

Although at first structural failure was reported to be the cause of the accident, it wasn't long before radar reports were published, showing intense military activity in the area. In 1989 it was announced that the flight had been shot down: but by who? Was it accidentally shot down in a dog fight between NATO, US or the French Air Force and the Libyan Air Force? Muammar al-Gaddafi was known to be flying in the area: was it an assassination attempt gone horribly wrong?

But it proved impossible to find out more. Frustrated families of the victims have nicknamed the responses from the government il muro di gomma ("the rubber wall'). It was used as the title of a film about the crash made in 1991.