1st World Symposium in Houston
Please download the speeches of
H. Ephraimson e S. Schmitz
Speech of Paolo Pettinaroli
At 8:30 a.m. on October 8, 2001, a colleague told me that a plane had crashed at Linate Airport. We were all still in shock from September 11, and we all feared that other terrorist attacks would have occurred because the Afghanistan war had just begun. I logged on to the Internet, and from the first bits of information I learned that one of the two airplanes involved was the SAS flight SK686 to Copenhagen, on which my son was a passenger. I started calling my son’s mobile phone, and I’m still waiting for an answer today. I was outside of Milan on business, and it was extremely difficult to get through to anyone at City Hall, in the airport or with the airline. There was no hotline set up, and the Prefecture office was practically inaccessible. My daughter-in-law left her office immediately and rushed to the airport, but it took forever to get there because access to the entire area was blocked and no one had thought to organize an emergency lane for family members of possible victims. At that moment, the terrible ordeal began for hundreds of people who rushed to Linate to learn what had happened to their loved ones. No one provided information, and TV news bulletins gave contrasting information. I was completely at a loss. When I reached the airport, it seemed as if I had entered Dante’s Inferno. I saw devastated, grief-stricken people with red and swollen eyes filled with tears. You could hear wails and shrieks of desperation. People sat or stood in a daze, numbed by the tranquillizer drops distributed by the Red Cross staff. The airport director brusquely announced, with very little tact and sensitivity, that he could not provide any information and that they were trying to extract whatever they could from the wreckage. We then learned the horrible news: everyone had perished. It was early afternoon at this point, and the task force of SAS’s “angels” started its difficult job of providing psychological and moral support to family members of the victims. It was a stressful, difficult, and, at times, impossible job, but they assisted these poor desperate people with great compassion. The Red Cross, which was on the scene from the beginning, played an extremely important role. No one wanted to leave the airport without their loved one’s luggage and personal effects. No one realized, at that point, the condition of the aircraft and how difficult luggage recovery would have been. The heartbreaking task of identifying the corpses began the following day. Some could be identified; others were reduced to charred pieces. The city of Milan was, unfortunately, inefficient, slow and unprepared to handle this tragedy. Family members were furious that they could not get their loved one’s luggage immediately, and people didn’t realize the difficulty of recovering it. Unfortunately, we received inaccurate information several times. The first was that luggage would have been returned in 5 or 6 days. In the meantime, the “8 ottobre per non dimenticare” [8th October, to never forget] committee was founded that reunited the victims’ families and helped them with the many complicated procedures that were required in that period. In mid-December, SAS invited me to go to London to Kenyon’s offices to visit the organization and see the process of tracing and matching personal effects found on the plane. I must say that Kenyon was extremely considerate: they picked me up at the airport and before I went to their warehouses, they met with me in the hotel lounge and psychologically prepared me for what I would have seen shortly thereafter. I have to admit that it was one of the most difficult moments I ever had to face in this tragedy. I was extremely nervous and afraid to enter those rooms and see what was left of the passengers’ belongings. The biggest shock was when I saw my son’s luggage. I have to say, though, that everything was clean and neat: even the tiniest piece of paper had been photographed and catalogued, and everything was done with great respect for our grief. It was a horrible but necessary experience, because I had to understand, see and inform the other families. When I returned, I summoned the committee members in Milan, and with the help of Mr. Robert Jensen, Kenyon COO, I explained what I had seen: the love and care with which the personal belongings of our loved ones were treated, and the reason why we would have had to wait several more months before they could be returned to us. Finally, the first pieces of luggage were delivered in March, accompanied by a book of unassociated items. Ms. Evi Volpato, marketing and sales manager of SAS Italy and several of her colleagues traveled in Italy and abroad (she even went to Australia) to personally deliver the belongings: it was an atrocious, burdensome and difficult task, especially for these people who had been involved since the beginning in this tragedy. None of us can ever forget their kindness and compassion, as they delivered our loved one’s personal effects. By that time, the memory of what had happened began to slowly fade, or perhaps we learned to hide that pain in a corner of our heart so that our lives could return to some semblance of normality. Yet luggage distribution was another shock that opened up many wounds again. I strongly believe that the luggage should have been returned no later than December, and the fact that has been delivered so late, is very negative and must be improved in the future. When faced with these tragedies, there is no such thing as great alliance based on solidarity. I’d like to stop for a moment to mention the stupendous, efficient organization that SAS had set up. In just a few hours it had organized an emergency crisis room in their Milan offices staffed by highly qualified people who met with and assisted the victims’ family members with great compassion, sensibility and concern. SAS immediately set up a toll-free help desk number that still exists to provide immediate assistance to those of us who needed help day or night. SAS also requested help from Alitalia’s ASSIST team that demonstrated humanity and altruism towards the families of the victims that cannot be summarized in just a few words or described in any sort of "emergency crisis" manual. Here is a testimonial from the daughter of one of the victims: "My mother and I are very fortunate because, then and still now, we are surrounded by a great many friends and relatives. Our true guardian angels were sent by SAS, with the cooperation of Alitalia. Francesca, Marco and now Veronica arrived: fabulous people I´ll never forget. They brought us a smile amidst the tears. They listened to us and solved problems, from the simplest, such as going out to buy medicine for me because I had a sore throat, to more complex ones, such as handling the paperwork for the inheritance and insurance…." She wrote, “My family and I will always be grateful to these people. The pain will never go away, but at least we will be able to get a hold of our destroyed life and to continue to do the things we used to do with my father Osvaldo. Thank you, Dad: even after death you´ve found a way to help me and you sent me these angels!" I’d like to mention the psychological and economic situation of the victims’ family members. Despite immediate economic assistance provided by the airline’s insurance company and the city of Milan, the Lombardy Region and SEA, many families found themselves in serious financial difficulties. Family members of artisans and small businesses, with mortgages and workers to pay, were forced to sell the companies at a loss to cope with the financial burden. Widows with two children or more found themselves without any sort of financial assistance. For 18 months we experienced extremely serious family situations, and we hope that these problems will never occur again. For this reason, the committee is promoting a draft law so that a very small percentage (0.1%) will be applied to all public transit tickets – from the subway to the trolley, trains, planes and cableways etc… The ensuing revenue will be paid to a group of insurance companies that can provide an appropriate amount to victims’ family members within 30 days of a disaster. The committee also established a panel of valid professionals who monitor the Italian civilian aviation sector with a capable and watchful eye, in the interests of all travelers. We did this so that there will always be a reply to our mobile phones and to those of our sons.
H. Ephraimson e S. Schmitz
Speech of Paolo Pettinaroli
At 8:30 a.m. on October 8, 2001, a colleague told me that a plane had crashed at Linate Airport. We were all still in shock from September 11, and we all feared that other terrorist attacks would have occurred because the Afghanistan war had just begun. I logged on to the Internet, and from the first bits of information I learned that one of the two airplanes involved was the SAS flight SK686 to Copenhagen, on which my son was a passenger. I started calling my son’s mobile phone, and I’m still waiting for an answer today. I was outside of Milan on business, and it was extremely difficult to get through to anyone at City Hall, in the airport or with the airline. There was no hotline set up, and the Prefecture office was practically inaccessible. My daughter-in-law left her office immediately and rushed to the airport, but it took forever to get there because access to the entire area was blocked and no one had thought to organize an emergency lane for family members of possible victims. At that moment, the terrible ordeal began for hundreds of people who rushed to Linate to learn what had happened to their loved ones. No one provided information, and TV news bulletins gave contrasting information. I was completely at a loss. When I reached the airport, it seemed as if I had entered Dante’s Inferno. I saw devastated, grief-stricken people with red and swollen eyes filled with tears. You could hear wails and shrieks of desperation. People sat or stood in a daze, numbed by the tranquillizer drops distributed by the Red Cross staff. The airport director brusquely announced, with very little tact and sensitivity, that he could not provide any information and that they were trying to extract whatever they could from the wreckage. We then learned the horrible news: everyone had perished. It was early afternoon at this point, and the task force of SAS’s “angels” started its difficult job of providing psychological and moral support to family members of the victims. It was a stressful, difficult, and, at times, impossible job, but they assisted these poor desperate people with great compassion. The Red Cross, which was on the scene from the beginning, played an extremely important role. No one wanted to leave the airport without their loved one’s luggage and personal effects. No one realized, at that point, the condition of the aircraft and how difficult luggage recovery would have been. The heartbreaking task of identifying the corpses began the following day. Some could be identified; others were reduced to charred pieces. The city of Milan was, unfortunately, inefficient, slow and unprepared to handle this tragedy. Family members were furious that they could not get their loved one’s luggage immediately, and people didn’t realize the difficulty of recovering it. Unfortunately, we received inaccurate information several times. The first was that luggage would have been returned in 5 or 6 days. In the meantime, the “8 ottobre per non dimenticare” [8th October, to never forget] committee was founded that reunited the victims’ families and helped them with the many complicated procedures that were required in that period. In mid-December, SAS invited me to go to London to Kenyon’s offices to visit the organization and see the process of tracing and matching personal effects found on the plane. I must say that Kenyon was extremely considerate: they picked me up at the airport and before I went to their warehouses, they met with me in the hotel lounge and psychologically prepared me for what I would have seen shortly thereafter. I have to admit that it was one of the most difficult moments I ever had to face in this tragedy. I was extremely nervous and afraid to enter those rooms and see what was left of the passengers’ belongings. The biggest shock was when I saw my son’s luggage. I have to say, though, that everything was clean and neat: even the tiniest piece of paper had been photographed and catalogued, and everything was done with great respect for our grief. It was a horrible but necessary experience, because I had to understand, see and inform the other families. When I returned, I summoned the committee members in Milan, and with the help of Mr. Robert Jensen, Kenyon COO, I explained what I had seen: the love and care with which the personal belongings of our loved ones were treated, and the reason why we would have had to wait several more months before they could be returned to us. Finally, the first pieces of luggage were delivered in March, accompanied by a book of unassociated items. Ms. Evi Volpato, marketing and sales manager of SAS Italy and several of her colleagues traveled in Italy and abroad (she even went to Australia) to personally deliver the belongings: it was an atrocious, burdensome and difficult task, especially for these people who had been involved since the beginning in this tragedy. None of us can ever forget their kindness and compassion, as they delivered our loved one’s personal effects. By that time, the memory of what had happened began to slowly fade, or perhaps we learned to hide that pain in a corner of our heart so that our lives could return to some semblance of normality. Yet luggage distribution was another shock that opened up many wounds again. I strongly believe that the luggage should have been returned no later than December, and the fact that has been delivered so late, is very negative and must be improved in the future. When faced with these tragedies, there is no such thing as great alliance based on solidarity. I’d like to stop for a moment to mention the stupendous, efficient organization that SAS had set up. In just a few hours it had organized an emergency crisis room in their Milan offices staffed by highly qualified people who met with and assisted the victims’ family members with great compassion, sensibility and concern. SAS immediately set up a toll-free help desk number that still exists to provide immediate assistance to those of us who needed help day or night. SAS also requested help from Alitalia’s ASSIST team that demonstrated humanity and altruism towards the families of the victims that cannot be summarized in just a few words or described in any sort of "emergency crisis" manual. Here is a testimonial from the daughter of one of the victims: "My mother and I are very fortunate because, then and still now, we are surrounded by a great many friends and relatives. Our true guardian angels were sent by SAS, with the cooperation of Alitalia. Francesca, Marco and now Veronica arrived: fabulous people I´ll never forget. They brought us a smile amidst the tears. They listened to us and solved problems, from the simplest, such as going out to buy medicine for me because I had a sore throat, to more complex ones, such as handling the paperwork for the inheritance and insurance…." She wrote, “My family and I will always be grateful to these people. The pain will never go away, but at least we will be able to get a hold of our destroyed life and to continue to do the things we used to do with my father Osvaldo. Thank you, Dad: even after death you´ve found a way to help me and you sent me these angels!" I’d like to mention the psychological and economic situation of the victims’ family members. Despite immediate economic assistance provided by the airline’s insurance company and the city of Milan, the Lombardy Region and SEA, many families found themselves in serious financial difficulties. Family members of artisans and small businesses, with mortgages and workers to pay, were forced to sell the companies at a loss to cope with the financial burden. Widows with two children or more found themselves without any sort of financial assistance. For 18 months we experienced extremely serious family situations, and we hope that these problems will never occur again. For this reason, the committee is promoting a draft law so that a very small percentage (0.1%) will be applied to all public transit tickets – from the subway to the trolley, trains, planes and cableways etc… The ensuing revenue will be paid to a group of insurance companies that can provide an appropriate amount to victims’ family members within 30 days of a disaster. The committee also established a panel of valid professionals who monitor the Italian civilian aviation sector with a capable and watchful eye, in the interests of all travelers. We did this so that there will always be a reply to our mobile phones and to those of our sons.
1° Simposio Mondiale di Houston - 12/10/2003