Antonov disaster in Verona, the families of the victims: “For 26 years the state has always been against us, between bureaucracy and sentences”
“But how much money do you think the heirs of the Antonov victims received from the former transport ministry? Voluntarily not even one, in some cases it has come to foreclosure. And in these 26 and a half years that separate us from the disaster, it is State we always found it on the other side, against us“. Francesco Zerbinati – chairman of the victims’ families committee – has spent almost half of his life fighting against the bureaucracythe companies of insurance ei ministries. There was his girlfriend on that Antonov of the Romavia company which on 13 December 1995 he should have reached Timisoara but it crashed shortly after take-off: on impact the 49 on board died, passengers and crew members. The plane crashed first of all because too much, for lack of controls and also because the wings had not been cleared of ice. Now the Supreme Court has ordered that the civil proceeding for the scandalous reduction of the damage suffered by the surviving heirs of an odyssey that has them endorsed by the insurance companies, ignored the State, forced to go into debt due to the state, be redone in the Court of Appeal in Venice cost of very long and expensive processes. “After 26 years it is not justice, but at least something has moved” explains Zerbinati.
Doctor Zerbinati, let’s start with the criminal investigations.
In 2001 the Supreme Court confirmed four convictions for the responsibilities of the management of the “Catullo” airport of Verona and the Ministry of Transport. The plane had been sent off without checking the loading plan, as well as other Italian airports. It had taken off with at least 210 quintals of weight too much. Also for this reason, as well as for the snow and ice, it fell after less than a minute. They had been acquitted in the first instance. The resurrections were fixed in a separate judgment.
So criminal justice was quick, for a complex case. Can the same be said of that civilian?
No. We had already started the case in Verona in 1997, after the requests for indictment of the prosecutor Mario Giulio Schinaia. Nine years later, in 2006, Judge Ievolella, a few weeks before retiring, “discovered” that he was not entitled to decide and that the jurisdiction lay with the Venice district office. To this “gift” he also added the compensation of the expenses between the parties. We victims on the same level as those responsible.
Until then, how much had the lawsuits cost you?
At the time, he calculated that we Italians alone spent over 3 million euros on lawyers, appraisals, revenue stamps and compensatory expenses. Fortunately, thanks to Daria Bonfietti, president of the association of the relatives of the victims of Ustica, we managed to obtain one million and 600 thousand euros to cover part of the expenses. They amounted to 36 thousand euros per family, but it was not compensation.
Against whom was the cause?
Initially against the Ministry of Transport, the “Catullo” airport and the Romavia company. But it must be said that some of the family members after the first criminal sentence began to accept settlements, which were proposed at 15-20 percent of the value of the compensation. Furthermore, the ministry did not have insurance and did not give anything of its own accord. Romavia, through a law firm in Rome that represented the insurance companies, proposed to pay 30 percent of the value to be compensated, but with the right of recourse to the other companies. They paid out a minimal part and maybe even made money by making up for the missing part.
But the airport paid off at some point.
In 2001, on the eve of the Criminal Cassation, about 60 percent of their share of responsibility, which was 20 percent, is proposed. At that point we had to accept, because the families had already spent tens of thousands of euros each on trials and lawsuits. But it was just the 12 percent of the entire compensation fund.
So the lawsuit continued in Venice against the Ministry, Romavia and their insurance companies?
With the 2006 reinstatement, the first civil sentence comes in 2010, 15 years after the disaster. The damage is quantified, but the insurance companies do not pay.
Because?
The Ministry of Infrastructure is not even insured. They wait for time to pass, for people to get tired. Every now and then, usually in the months of August-September, some proposal for a settlement, obviously on the downside, arrived from the insurance lawyers of the Romanian company.
And here we are at the second civil sentence.
In 2016, the judges reform the sentence in a way that is nothing short of shocking. They reduce the 50 thousand euros of non-pecuniary damage to 20 thousand euros. And do you know why? Because the period of time that would allow the heirs to recognize the damage from death referred to the awareness of the tragic outcome of the accident was too short, Just 12 seconds. For the judges there was no proof of the passengers’ awareness of the imminent catastrophe, therefore the relatives are entitled only to compensation resulting from the damage to the possibility of enjoying the parental relationship.
Now the Supreme Court gives you hope of being able to obtain compensation, even if it will never be fair after so long.
He ordered the trial on appeal in Venice to be redone, accepting our reasons, because the judges made an almost flat-rate calculation on the non-pecuniary calculation, without ascertaining the circumstances on a case-by-case basis. We think of the gravity of the situation, and of the life they had, three brothers who have lost parents and a brother in the accident. The Supreme Court orders to review everything, including the application of the points tables for the compensation provided by the Court of Appeal of Rome, instead of the compensation applied in the Veneto context or the tables of the Court of Milan.
Will they pay off in the end?
The State, which for almost thirty years has always made use of the State Attorney’s Office, has shown that it does not want to do so and that every time it is fighting against our sacred rights. The same public prosecutor Schinaia said it in the courtroom: I even found myself against the State I represent. Family members who had the transactions took even less than their lawyers.
And the institutions?
Look, our commemorations have never been attended by a representative of the Municipality of Verona, of the Province and not even the governor Giancarlo Galan, who also promised us to do so.