Linate Airport disaster
The Linate Airport disaster occurred on 8 October 2001 at Linate Airport in Milan, Italy, when Scandinavian Airlines Flight 686, a McDonnell Douglas MD-87 airliner carrying 110 people bound for Copenhagen, Denmark, collided on take-off with a Cessna Citation CJ2 business jet carrying four people bound for Paris, France. All 114 people on both aircraft were killed, as well as four people on the ground. Investigation revealed that the collision was caused by a number of nonfunctioning and nonconforming safety systems, standards, and procedures at the airport.
The Linate Airport disaster is the deadliest air disaster to ever occur in Italian aviation history.
Aircraft and crew
Two aircraft were involved in the collision. The larger of the two aircraft was a McDonnell-Douglas MD-87. The jet was piloted by Captain Joakim Gustafsson (36) and First Officer Anders Hyllander (36). The captain was hired by SAS in 1987 and he had more than 5,800 hours of flight experience to his credit. He had logged approximately 230 hours in the aircraft type. The first officer was hired by the airline in 1997. At the time of the accident he had more than 4,300 total flying hours. He was more experienced in the aircraft type than his captain, having logged 2,000 hours in it.