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Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 12

aviation accident

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ4016223 ↗
Source-derived summary

Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 12 was a scheduled flight from Alghero-Fertilia Airport in northwest Sardinia to Rome Fiumicino Airport with a scheduled stop at Cagliari-Elmas Airport in southern Sardinia. On September 14, 1979, the Douglas DC-9 operating the flight struck a rocky mountainside during an attempted landing at Cagliari, resulting in the deaths of all 31 passengers and crew on board. The crash was caused by misinterpreting ATC instructions leading to the flight colliding with terrain.

Aircraft

The plane was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, built in 1975 and delivered new to Aero Trasporti Italiani registered as I-ATJC. The aircraft had logged about 10000 hours at the time of the crash.

Flight

The first officer contacted the controller at Cagliari at 00:23, asking for a weather report. The controller replied that runway 14 was in use, the wind was from 190° at 8 knots, and visibility was 7 km (4.3 mi). He also stated there were thunderstorms without precipitation, south-east and south-west of the airport. After contacting the Cagliari Tower controller at 00:26, the flight was cleared to descend to the transition altitude of 6,000 ft (1,800 m).

Having in front of them a consistent formation of cumulonimbus clouds, the first officer radioed their intention to make a 360° turn to further lower the altitude and thus avoid the cloud formations. The controller, not having traffic in the area, authorized the manoeuvre, and the first officer then announced the intention to leave 7,500 ft (2,300 m) for 3,000 ft (910 m).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 12” as aviation accident. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1979, 1975—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Aero, Trasporti and Italiani can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as aviation accident. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4016223. Authority coordinates are 39.118, 8.932. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979 and 1975.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 12”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 12 primary sources, Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 12 archive and Aero research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 12” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.