Heart transplant team lost in air crash
A small plane carrying a medical team and a heart for a transplant patient crashed today in Sardinia, killing all six people aboard.
The Cessna Citation 500 had taken off from Rome’s Ciampino airport and was bound for the Sardinian city of Cagliari when it lost radar contact with air traffic controllers over a mountain range about 20 miles from Cagliari, said Francesco Di Simone, a spokesman for Italy’s air force.
On board were two pilots and a four-member medical team that had picked up the heart at a Rome hospital and was returning back to Sardinia for a transplant.
Italian news reports said the two pilots were Austrian.
About four hours after radar contact was lost, an air force rescue helicopter spotted the wreckage of the Cessna, and a member of the rescue team confirmed that all six people on board had died, he said.
