Alitalia crash reveals dead bodies in the closet

The crashed "Alitalia" plane as it looked on Saturday

Last Saturday night, a plane crashed at Fiumicino (FCO), Rome's main airport. The initial news reports mentioned "an Alitalia flight from Pisa to Rome, veering off the runway after landing in strong winds".

Already from that moment, I was a bit surprised: I live 5 miles from the landing strip, and the wind was not unusually strong. Luckily only one person was seriously injured. But surprise: it was a flight attendent who was apparently not strapped in. Why would a flight attendant not be strapped in, during landing in strong winds?

And within hours, a more obscure story came up: While the plane had the colours and insignia from Alitalia, Italy's national carrier, and had an Alitalia flight number, it had nothing to do with Alitalia. The plane was not only operated by Carpatair, an obscure Romanian budget airline, with a Romanian crew, but was also owned by that same obscure airline. The plane itself was actually registered in Romania, and not in Italy, as Alitalia planes normally are...

More suspicion came in when I saw this Carpatair press release (.PDF):

The forcasted (sic) winds in FCO were in the limits for the ATR as aircraft type as well as those of Carpatair. Windshear predicition (sic) information was not available in the in the (sic) reports regarding actual weather and forecstaed (sic) meteorological conditions given to the crew before the flight, it was not mentioned to the pilots in the weather updates info through the ATIS (actual weather special radio frequency) during the flight or by on the tower (sic) frequency before landing

I am a firm believer that small details often reveal a full picture. A sloppy press release full of spelling/grammatical errors, puts Carpatair in the category of "duct tape and shoe lace"-airlines, in my book.
Now beyond that, what are they trying to say: that their ATR-72 aircraft should not have been flying in this weather, but nobody informed them? I smell rotten fish.

So here is my question: Explain why this is not plain fraud? While code sharing and the practice of "flights of one airline being operated by another", is common practice, in this case, there is absolutely nothing that ties this flight to Alitalia. Except the flight number.

And of course, less than 24 hours after the crash, the plane was neatly repainted, hiding all references to Alitalia.

The "Alitalia" plane, one day after the crash

Smell the dead bodies in the closet? Next thing we will hear is that a Moldovian hooker was giving the captain a blow job at the time of the crash, like with the Italian Costa Concordia cruise ship, which ran aground off the coast almost exactly a year ago...


Pictures courtesy Daily Mail and EPA.

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Snapped: Dinner in Fiumicino

It is that time of the year: evenings on the beach!

There is a small shack on the beach in Fiumicino, near Rome. Nothing more than a wooden structure, few square meters of covered space, and a deck. But Stefano serves one of the best dinners around.

A typical Italian setting: low key, limited choices, but fresh. And in a idyllic setting, facing west, over the Mediterranean.

Dinner on the deck


A view of the sea through the restaurant.


A significant sign.


Sunset as we had aperitivo...

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What is the verb for "lazy"?

I am "lazying"?

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Snapped: Sunset near Rome

Last year, I started a series of posts on The Road, which I called The Snapped Series, "Mobile phone shots from the hip". They evolved from pictures taken with my crappy Nokia mobile phone to shots taken with the iPhone I got for my birthday.

I was amazed of the iPhone picture quality and got hooked on taking shots as I went along "on the road of life".

One thing lead to another, and the phrase "Shot from the Hip" let to the birth of a separate website, where I posted these pictures, soundbytes, short videos. All taken randomly, and posted via Email from my phone. For the nerds amongst you, I explained in this post how to do that.

Anyways, to make a long story short, I will resume posting a selection of these shots here on The Road. I will start with this one, as there is a sweet story connected to it:

A little girl and her dad watched a sunset.

After the sun went down, the girl asked:

"Daddy, can you do that again?"

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Living in Italy - Part 16: Free WiFi access. Almost.

Since a while, there is free WiFi access in many public parks in and around Rome. All WiFi hotspots are neatly indicated with signs:



Encouraging effort to bridge the digital divide, if any left in Italy. Maybe there are also other divides to be addressed... When accessing the WiFi spot from a mobile phone, you are neatly prompted with a login screen:

Hmmm. Username and password, hey? Boh.. as it says (in Italian): registration is for free, so let's give it a try:


Holy Mo! That is a quite a chunk of data.. You need to give your name, address, mobile phone number, and of course endorse the terms and conditions which are neatly outlined (in Italian):


At that point, I gave up trying to register via my mobile phone.
Once back at home, I registered from my computer. Well, almost, as after filling in the form, you are prompted to confirm your registration by calling a toll-free number. You have to call it from the cellphone you registered. And you have five minutes.

So going outside, waiting for the mobile coverage to come up, I dialed the number. Which was engaged. Which was engaged again. Which was engaged once more. Which was engaged again. Which kept on being engaged.

Of course the five minutes deadline came sooner than expected, and I had to register again.

At that point I gave up. Maybe free WiFi access is not something for me.


Read more in the Living in Italy series

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Driving in Rome

If you are used to switching from one highway to another using four parallel lanes, a smooth gradual exit and re-entry, then you will need to adapt to real life when you visit Rome.
Driving here, is more about being creative, daring and above all: it's about being decisive.

To switch from one highway to another, this road in Rome takes you through several backstreets of an area I would not like to drive at night. It has a four meter exit at 90 degrees, and a five meter long re-entry with virtually no visibility on incoming traffic.

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Snapped: Signs of fall in Rome

Every season has signs of beauty. Fall is the season of colours: Trees in the centre of Rome.

The Snapped Series: mobile phone shots from the hip.

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Snapped: Italian Tuk-Tuk

I think Italy is the only country in Western Europe where the "Tuk-Tuk" or "Treewheela" (as they are called in many places around Asia), are still widely used. Here is one at a traffic light in the center of Rome.

Snapped is a series of posts with pictures taken with my mobile phone.

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Sea shells on the sea shore.

I can see the sun shining between the sea shells shuffling on the sea shore. (x20)

PS: can't wait until good quality pictures and video can be taken from a mobile phone... Nokia surely is not good at it.

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Our local rock band

Snapped this picture while walking in the town (eh, village) where I live, near Rome in Italy.

Locals tell me their popularity equals that of U2. At least in the village here.

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The summer season arrived in Rome

With 27°C today, here near Rome, we hereby officially declare the summer season open for business. Time to get the essential survival equipment out from its winter storage: the deck chair and the hammock.

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This is definitively spring

Two days ago. A spring day in Rome...

Arrive early at work. Clear blue sky. A view from my office:



Leave at 6pm. For the first time, the thermometer hits above 20ºC. Definitively a sign winter is over.



And then arrive home just in time for a sunset. A view from my living room balcony.

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Rome WWF nature reserve features... a garbage dump

Close to where I live, here in Italy, is the "Oasis Macchiagrande", a WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature) nature reserve which, according to the Italian WWF website features "an interesting combination of Mediterranean scrub behind a Mediterranean forest, making it the most beautiful and best preserved coast of Lazio."

Well, it surely is an interesting "combination of things", plastics mainly. I am not so sure if it is the "most beautiful" and "best preserved" piece of coast line I have ever seen though, when looking at these pictures I took today:







I also doubt if the site is an illustration of WWF's mission statement, "to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature"...

Shame!

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Spring is in the air...

Spring is all around us, here in Italy. Some random snapshots taken during a walk this morning.

The beach today:


Yours truly: (I know! I need a haircut!)


More on The Road about Italy

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Emergency! Rome ice cream shops to close at 1 am

In the latest attempt to crack down on drunken violence and thuggery in the Italian capital, ice-cream parlours will soon be obliged to close by 1 am.

Rome's right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno has been seeking effective ways to curb the loutish late-night drinking habits of young Romans and visitors in some parts of the city centre, particularly Trastevere and Campo de' Fiori.

Other businesses required to haul down the shutters will be pizzerias, bakeries, pastry shops, yogurterias and the cafes specialising in roast meat and vegetables known as rosticcerias.

Rome-lovers see the move as a direct assault on some of the city's most sensual pleasures. (Full)


More posts on The Road about Italy.

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Sunset this evening

I live half a mile from the beach in Fregene, near Rome. As today was such a gorgeous day, I went for a walk around sunset... Look at the movie the Gods played on the beach this evening:

And to make it all picture perfect, they injected
this "guy fishing in the sea" into the script:


Watch this evening's pictures in a Flickr slideshow

More on The Road about Rome, Italy, or living in Italy.

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Protests in support of Gaza in Rome

Today, about 3,000 people took to the streets protesting the Israeli incursion of Gaza.

Our local reporter "E" was present on the spot, reporting on what she called "a peaceful demonstration". She sent these pictures live from the rally.

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Rumble: Beach Combing

After the storms and rains that flooded half of Rome, all debris carried out to the sea by the rivers, washed on the beach. It looked like a battle field.





Many dinghies got picked up and dropped, or buried under the sand.



This river estuary is normally three meters wide.



More on The Road about where I live, Rome and Italy.

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News: Rome Floods (2)

Yesterday, I posted about the excessive rain in Rome, causing major disruptions in town. While it was not too bad where I live, the center of town was apparently hit worse.

The mayor said the emergency was equivalent to Rome being "hit by an earthquake. We had more rain in one night than normally comes down in the whole of December". (Full)













Pictures courtesy Massimo Percossi, Alessandro Di Meo/EPA, ANSA, Manuela Ajo, Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters. Thanks to my Friend E for the links.

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Rumble: Rome Floods

There was a time we lived in Kampala, Uganda. When we had a rain storm, everyone was late coming to the office, as roads would be flooded knee high.

I was reminded of that today. The only difference is, I now live in Rome, Italy.

I woke up at 6:30 am. There was some distant rumble of thunder, but I did not think much of it.

When I got outside, it rained. I drove off, curbing a corner and followed a car in front of me, which stopped all of a sudden. I passed him, to find myself driving through 10 inches of water. As drainage where I live is almost non-existent, I did not think much of it.

Drove to work, and found the traffic to be very light. Saw many fields besides the highway drenched, but did not think much of it.

Took the Fiumicino-Rome highway. Exit close to work. One of the underpasses of the highway was flooded up to the ceiling. A car stuck in the underpass, its roof hardly visible. We had the same two weeks ago. And it took them four days to drain the underpass. So, this morning, I did not think much of it.

Got to work, and saw very few cars in the parking lot. Went to the usual Thursday morning staff meeting, only to find a handful of people. Normally we have 200 people attending. Started getting SMSes from several of my staff saying "I will be late", followed by "Stuck in traffic" and later "Making a U-turn. Going back home." "Not coming today, traffic just stopped".. One after the other, meetings were cancelled.

Only then I caught up with the news:

Apparently there was a big rain storm last night (slept through it), with loads of thunder and lightning (slept through it), and half of Rome was flooded (drove in from the other - non-flooded - side).

Rome's mayor declared the state of emergency, advising people to stay home. One person was found dead in a car, stuck in a flooded underpass. (More)

That is the point where I started to think about my time in Africa.

More on The Road about Rome and Italy

Picture courtesy Letneo

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