Chilling moment man ran past airport staff before throwing himself into engine
Photos have captured the chilling moment a man ran past airport employees before throwing himself into a plane engine.
Andrea Russo, 35, from Calcinate, near Bergamo, Italy, entered Milan Bergamo Airport after abandoning his ref Fiat 500 car on Tuesday morning. He arrived at the airport without a ticket and raced into a restricted area leading to the runway before Border Police tried to stop him. But Russo managed to evade officers and made his way onto the tarmac before "throwing himself into one of the two turbofans" of the Volotea Airbus A319 flight V73511 from Milan to Asturias, in Spain. New footage captured the moment Russo was jogging toward the plane and as he jumping towards the port side engine.
He then leaped into the engine's blades with airport employees on the runway holding their heads in horror. Russo's body fell lifeless to the floor shortly afterward. The Mirror has chosen not to show this footage due to the graphic nature.
A Spanish passenger on board the plane at the time told La Nueva España 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."
The woman, from Asturias, said the plane was preparing to take-off. She added: "We don't know exactly what happened." The pilot later addressed passengers in a "shaken" voice and told them there had been a "very serious problem involving a person."
Officers arrived at the scene to carry out an investigation of the site. Sources told local outlets said Russo had a history of "drug problems." A witness told Italian outlet La Repubblica that a man ran toward the aircraft.
He added: "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."
A statement shared to X/ Twitter by Volotea said: "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."
The incident caused on flight to be diverted to Bologna with two others being sent to Verona and another six redirected to Milan Malpensa. In an earlier updated posted to X, the Lombardy Airports Association wrote: "Traffic to and from #orio #Bgy is suspended due to a serious issue on the apron. Possible delays, diversions, and cancellations throughout the morning. Updates will follow."
In response to the incident, Giovanni Sanga, CEO of the group which operated Milan Bergamo Airport, expressed his "personal condolences" to the man's family. He added that the man actively "approached the aircraft of a scheduled flight" in the harrowing final moments before his death.
Mr Sanga said: "The dramatic event has shocked the entire airport community. First of all, I would like to express my personal condolences and those of the company to the victim's family, to whom we are close in this terrible moment."
Mr Sanga added: "From the very beginning, in addition to ensuring the immediate management of the emergency and assistance to passengers and crew, we turned our attention to the colleagues who witnessed the episode and were deeply affected by it.
"At 10:35am on July 8, at Milan Bergamo airport, a person, neither a passenger nor an employee of companies operating at the airport, despite the prompt counteraction of the police forces present, managed to enter the aircraft apron, then reaching the taxiway. Here he approached the aircraft of a scheduled flight, stationary and with its engines running, losing his life.
"The exact dynamics of the incident are being examined by the judicial authorities to whom SACBO (The Bergamo Milan airport authority) continues to provide all the necessary collaboration. The company, in coordination with the relevant bodies, immediately activated emergency procedures and assistance to the flight passengers, crew and ground personnel involved, also making psychological support services available."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Metro
3 hours ago
- Metro
Three injured by falling rubble after van ploughs through Leeds car park
Three people have been taken to hospital after a van crashed through a multi-storey car park in Leeds. The van collided through the wall and barrier at the NCP car park on York Street at around 4.15pm this afternoon. Emergency services including the police, fire and ambulance service attended the scene. A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: 'Police were called to the NCP car park on Harper Street, Leeds at 4.09pm today to a report a van had collided with an interior wall while driving on the first floor. 'The collision caused damage to the building wall itself and led to the vehicle protruding outwards. 'Occupants of the vehicle were taken to hospital for precautionary checks. 'Three members of the public were also taken to hospital for assessment after being struck by rubble. None of the injuries are thought to be life threatening. 'A police scene has been established and damage to the building is being assessed by colleagues from the fire service and structural engineers More Trending 'The vehicle involved will be recovered.' The car park is currently sealed off while authorities investigate the cause of the crash. York Street, a busy route connecting to the A61 and Eastgate roundabout, remains closed this evening, with heavy traffic during rush hour. Drivers are being diverted and the public are advised to avoid the area where possible. Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ Or you can submit your videos and pictures here. For more stories like this, check our news page. Follow on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here. MORE: Popular Italian restaurant chain on brink of administration to close six sites MORE: 'My son died riding on an e-scooter – we need to end these needless tragedies' MORE: Two children killed after youth sailing camp boat struck by barge in Miami
Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Moment two Brit children found drowned with 'exhausted' dad in holiday tragedy
Spanish authorities confirmed a British brother and sister, aged 11 and 13, died while they were swimming off the coast of Tarragona in north-east Spain as their dad attempted to save them A British brother and sister tragically drowned in front of their dad while swimming off a beach in Spain. The boy aged 11 and girl aged 13 had been swimming off Llarga beach in Salou, Tarragona, on Tuesday night, according to the Civil Protection force. Their dad reportedly entered the water after seeing them in trouble and tried to save them. He was rescued alive, but tragically his children could not be saved. Police said sea conditions were rough and the beach had a yellow flag throughout the day - meaning swimming is allowed but caution is advised. The Civil Protection spokesman said lifeguards had already left the beach for the day less than an hour earlier. A hotel worker had tried to help the stricken family and police who arrived at the scene also jumped in to try and save them all. Seven medical units attended the scene along with police and fire services. But both youngsters were in cardiac arrest by the time emergency help arrived and efforts to save them proved unsuccessful. Inspector Jose Luis Gargallo, head of Salou's local police force, said the initial call received pointed to three people drowning off the resort's Llarga beach. He said: 'Local police rushed to the scene and saw that there were indeed three people who were really struggling to get out of the water. It was a father with his son and his daughter, all British. When the youngsters, the boy and girl aged 11 and 13, were brought out of the water they had no vital signs and all the resuscitation efforts to save them proved unsuccessful. 'The father could be saved. He had swallowed a lot of water and he was exhausted but could be saved thanks to the intervention of the emergency medical responders and police. We're talking about a family with five children and the mum was in the nearby hotel where they were staying with the other three children. The father was with the two children that died. 'All day a yellow flag had been out at that beach so there was a danger of a stormy sea which is why the yellow flag was out. When the tragedy happened the sea was the same as two or three hours before so it was a stormy sea,' he said. 'That's why you have to be careful with the sea. "This is a beach that offers ideal swimming conditions 99% of the year, but yesterday this was not the case…it's a very calm sea normally... Just a few hours earlier another person had died in very similar conditions.' He added: 'The lifeguards are on duty at the beach where these British youngsters died until 8pm. They start work at 9.30am. 'Unfortunately this alert came in at 8.48pm so 48 minutes after the lifeguard service had finished. This has been an accident but as always with these sorts of accidents, a thorough investigation will take place to see if there are things that can be improved and if they can there will be improvements.' He also said local police officers jumped into the sea to try to save the children. One of the officers, identified only by his first name and the initial of his surname as Younes A, said: 'A hotel worker was trying to get one of the three out of the sea when we arrived. 'We were told when we helped get that person out that another two people were in the sea who could be minors. We tried to locate them, saw bits of clothes and seconds later were able to locate and get a young girl out of the water and began resuscitation and another police force was the one responsible for getting the other child out of the sea. 'When the emergency services arrived they took over the efforts to save them until they said they couldn't do anything more. We don't know the circumstances leading up to them getting into difficulties. 'I leapt into the water with two other colleagues to get the father to safety first before going back to rescue one of the children.' He added: 'There were waves and wind. It was dangerous. There was a lot of swell.' Footage published locally yesterday showed a helicopter flying above the beach where a white tent had been erected on the sand to shield the bodies of the two children. Emergency services were still at the scene after nightfall before court workers authorised the removal of their bodies so they could be taken to a nearby morgue for post-mortems to take place. Authorities sent a team of psychologists to support the family who are understood to have been staying at a nearby four-star Hotel Best Negresco. A source at the hotel confirmed: 'The hotel is doing all it can at the moment to assist the family. 'The children's father is here at the moment and is not in hospital. The hotel found out yesterday what had happened. Everyone at the hotel is distraught.' Salou Town Hall organised a minute's silence on Wednesday around noon local time. The deaths bring the number of fatalities on Catalan beaches to 16 since the summer season began on June 15th - five more than the same period last year, officials added. A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said: "We are supporting the family of two British children who have died in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities." The civil protection force urged "the importance of taking extreme precautions on beaches, swimming pools and inland waters this summer". Five hours before this tragedy a 54 year old German tourist also drowned at Cambrils beach in southern Catalonia. He was rescued alive around 4.30pm but died soon after he reached the shoreline. Cambrils' mayor Oliver Klein said afterwards: 'We profoundly regret the loss of a human life on our coast. 'It's a tragic incident which has left us deeply moved. I want to express my most sincere condolences to the family and friends of the person affected.' The deaths of the two youngsters, follows a number of other British deaths in Spain this summer. Two British men, aged 19 and 26, died in separate incidents at a hotel and music venue in Ibiza earlier this month. The Mossos regional police force declined to comment and a spokesman said: 'We are not making any official comment as this is not a criminal matter and according to protocol it's Civil Protection that would make any statement. 'We've drafted a report on the incident which has been passed on to an investigating court.'
New Statesman
5 hours ago
- New Statesman
How do we keep the lid on race-related violence?
A police car set on fire by far-right activists in Sunderland last August. Photo by Ian Forsyth / Getty Images 'Shower upon us abundant rain,' goes a Muslim prayer one learns in childhood, 'swiftly and not delayed.' A prayer for rain that makes sense in the desert. Imagine my surprise on learning the Church of England has one too. Whose idea was it to institute such a prayer in this soggy, inclement land? Its diverse uses have, however, recently become apparent: in the middle of an inconvenient hosepipe ban, to foil defeat in the cricket, or – more seriously – to maintain public order in times so tense that the country is being called a 'tinderbox' at risk of exploding again into nationwide rioting. Last summer, a far-right frenzy gripped towns across Britain. Hotels housing asylum seekers were almost burned down. Now, another such hotel in Epping is subject to anti-migrant demonstrations; these are spreading. Fearing another summer of discord, officials have been appealing to the deus ex machina of the weather. It's well known that hot summers provide the perfect conditions for public unrest to germinate. The London riots in 2011 were a summer affair, as were the 1981 England riots, the worst race-related violence the UK has seen. Tempers flare with temperatures. And rain souses the appetite to indulge in outdoor clashes. A historic heatwave also provides the metaphor for simmering conflict in Do the Right Thing (1989), Spike Lee's classic film about racial tension in a predominantly black Brooklyn neighbourhood. Lee saturates the frame – Gauguin-like – with volcanic hues of red and orange. Our eyes are primed – lava will surely fly – and after a youngster is choked to death by a cop, as George Floyd would be, the community at last erupts into violence. What would be the right thing to do in these circumstances? Lee is a dialectical filmmaker. He ends by quoting from two opposing – though equally compelling – schools of thought about political protest: Martin Luther King Jr's contention that violence is 'both impractical and immoral', and Malcolm X's rejoinder, that when violence is 'in self-defence, I call it intelligence'. The film doesn't say which of these courses of action is, in the end, right. I admire Malcolm X's courage. His insinuation that the bullet may ultimately be more effective than the ballot was born of the chronic failure of American democracy. But rewatching Lee's film, I found myself leaning more towards King. I recoiled during the climactic scene, when the amiable protagonist, Mookie, smashes up the Italian-American pizzeria that provides him with employment, a father-figure and a lively communal space (last year's rioters similarly ransacked their own community centres and amenities). Finally, the rioters threaten the local Asian-run grocery. At this moment, seeing such a familiar character threatened, I fully realised where it was that I stand in this debate. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe For all my sympathy with this community ravaged by the violence of an unjust state, I could not accept this rage against blameless bystanders. I recalled the real-life Bangladeshi family in Minneapolis, whose livelihood – a restaurant – was destroyed in Black Lives Matter protests five years ago. 'Let my building burn,' its immigrant owner, Ruhel Islam, proclaimed, 'justice needs to be served.' The restaurant's name still sticks in the mind: Gandhi Mahal, in homage to the man whose still revolutionary doctrine of non-violence King was an adherent of. By overcoming self-interest and standing with a just cause at personal cost, so clearly was Ruhel Islam. The rioters from Do the Right Thing and from last summer have divergent motives: Mookie and his friends in 1980s New York are crying out for racial justice, while last year's rioters were motivated, I do believe, by racial animus. Nevertheless, in distinct ways, they exemplify anxieties and resentments around race that can stew in any 'melting pot' society. Incidents of police brutality or, as has recently been the trigger in UK unrest, sexual assault, can blow the lid off. When that happens, since time immemorial, immigrant communities like mine are the ones consumed in the fury. How, then, to keep the lid on? This, now, is our challenge. Personally, I'd like to spread the Mahatma's teachings in Epping, but alas, that may fall on deaf ears. Severe sentencing was what the courts opted for – on violent demonstrators, deservedly, but also on inciteful or hateful speech. This, on reflection, seems appropriate. Terror was unleashed by the now jailed Lucy Connolly's call to burn down asylum hotels. But such authoritarianism betrays a political establishment increasingly of the view that the country's diverse ethnic and religious make-up can no longer sustain open discussion of topics sensitive to its respective communities. Note the state's recent activity: a superinjunction to prevent media reporting on Afghan refugee resettlement; an Online Safety Act that is concealing from the public controversial footage; making it a crime even to voice support for Palestine Action; penalising the burning of a Koran. Here, then, is a government that thinks segments of the population are so vexed by migration, or so offended by criticism of Israel, or Islam, that these conversations must be suppressed to keep the peace: ignorance coerced for the sake of bliss. If this is the cost of being tolerated, I don't really feel like paying it. I refuse to believe the country is such a tinderbox. Social cohesion will come, but only by having and withstanding difficult conversations, not by avoiding them. That's how to do the right thing. Failing that, I have my prayer for rain. [See also: One year on, tensions still circle Britain's asylum-seeker hotels] Related
