By Sumayya
ITALY — Two individuals lost their lives after a small gyrocopter hit cable car wires in northern Italy.
Videos shared on social media showed the tiny aircraft crashing into the cables around 11:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday. The aircraft caught fire immediately and fell onto a grassy field right next to Lake Campliccioli, located in the Piedmont area.
Local residents in the neighboring town of Antrona stated that the small aircraft burst into “a ball of fire.”
The two individuals traveling inside the aircraft passed away immediately. Officials have identified them as Alessandro Angelo Muscinelli, 62, a professional engineer from Premeno who was flying the aircraft, and his sister-in-law Antonella Pagliarani, 63, who lived in Milan.
A gyrocopter is a small, lightweight aircraft that looks quite similar to a helicopter but operates differently mechanically, using a free-spinning top rotor to stay in the air and a small engine-powered propeller to move forward.
These machines are usually built as two-seat recreational vehicles that people frequently use for low-altitude sightseeing tours in mountain areas.
Fire rescue teams verified that the flying craft hit a service cable car line in the Piedmont area, right near the border of Ossola and Switzerland.
Rescue teams rushed to the accident site and sent a helicopter to perform a medical rescue, but they could not save either of the passengers.
Officials are now conducting an investigation to find out exactly how the accident happened.
