More than seventy years have passed since the tragedy of Superga of May 4, 1949 with the death of the champions of Great Turin, the journalists and the crew of the plane that was supposed to bring them home from Lisbon. A lot has been said and written about that national disaster that moved all of Italy, but not the most important thing: what were the real causes of the greatest Italian air disaster and who is responsible? Now a highly documented book by Luigi tries Trojans, professor of international relations, published by Morrone Editore (269 pages, 18 euros), suggestive right from its title "The commander stayed on the hill“. A decidedly counter-current novel-truth that debunks clichés and brings out very substantial doubts about the convenient version of the first hour, according to which it was a matter of human error by the pilot.
Superga: too many clues dismantle the initial official version of the "human error" and the mystery of the technical expertise that does not exist remains
There is no absolute truth about the reasons for the plane crash but there are many indications that suggest that we cannot speak of "human error" hastily. Not only because at the controls of the cursed I-ELCE model FIAT G.212 there was a skilled pilot like Pierluigi meroni, highly decorated in war and blind flight instructor in the Air Force, but because three-engine planes of that type collected accidents after accidents and continued to crash: 7 out of 12 will be destroyed while they are in operation and in the end Fiat itself stopped building them. Many clues, although cautiously reported by the author, suggest that the origin of the tragedy could have been structural defects or failures of the on-board instrumentation, perhaps of the altimeters. Very interesting is the testimony that, on the occasion of the presentation of the book at the Casa dell'Aviatore in Rome on 22 November 2022, General Mario Arpino who told of his personal experience on the trimotor Fiat G. 212 describing it as an aircraft that enters a cloud and comes out in an "unusual" situation that does not allow full control and frightens the crew. "That time" with the Fiat G.212 - explained the General - we ran a mortal risk because the aircraft, at a certain point in the flight in the clouds had stalled badly and almost capsized, losing a lot of altitude. It appears to have rapidly overloaded with ice until it spiraled out of control."
Words that fuel the mystery of the May 4th tragedy. But there is something new that the book discovers and which fuels even stronger doubts about the causes and real responsibilities of the disaster: in the aeronautical archives the final expertise there is none on Superga. Gone? Who knows, but after more than 70 years yellow remains everything.
Superga, a tragedy within a tragedy: that of the families of the forgotten victims
But the technical reconstruction of the disaster, with the disturbing questions it projects on the reader, is not all and the book arouses other emotions. These are the ones that arise from the words of the eldest son of the missing pilot, Giancarlo Meroni, who would later become a brilliant trade unionist and head of the international office of the CGIL in the 70s, but who at the age of just seven suddenly found himself orphaned together with the two younger siblings. The tragedy seen from the side of the forgotten victims, that is not from the families of the champions of the Grande Torino and not even from those of the famous journalists, is an unprecedented and hitherto unexplored dimension. “At the grandiose funeral that Turin and Italy celebrated for the victims of Superga – says Giancarlo, the son of the missing pilot – mum and we children were fearful in a corner, alone. There are photos on the net to prove it. For many years the stigma accompanied us survivors of our father's fate, influencing our lives". Words that make you shiver. It is impossible to fix it but in the commemorations of 4 May each year, it would be right to remember that there is a tragedy in the Superga tragedy: the one, neglected for too long, that "The commander stayed on the hill" skilfully brings to light.
