Rome judge orders Ustica disaster investigation reopened after France offers archives

Judicial ruling in Rome

Preliminary investigations judge Livio Sabatini at the Court of Rome issued a five-page order on October 2, 2026, returning the Ustica disaster case files to public prosecutors and directing new investigative steps. The ruling accepted a formal motion submitted by Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi on September 30, 2026, which revoked an earlier petition from March 2025 to shelve the case. Sabatini stated in the ruling that allowing the revocation is the most reasonable solution to enable swift investigative progress across two consolidated criminal proceedings, opened against unknown persons in 2008 and 2022. The proceedings must now conclude either through the exercise of criminal prosecution or a renewed shelving request.

French diplomatic transmission

The decision to resume the investigation follows formal communication between Paris and Rome. On September 14, 2026, the French Embassy transmitted a diplomatic note to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs offering documentation spanning from 1981 to 1994. The file package was routed through the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Justice to the Rome Prosecutor's Office. The material includes nine digital files and French defence ministry records. In the note, the French Embassy stated that French authorities were unaware of any pending mutual legal assistance requests, noting that two documents were previously transferred in 1986 and 1990, while expressing willingness to accommodate future Italian requests.

Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi addressed the preliminary hearing regarding the renewed international cooperation.

The French authorities' willingness to cooperate opens a new line of inquiry and new prospects.

Decades of unresolved inquiry

On the evening of June 27, 1980, an Itavia Douglas DC-9 operating Flight 870 from Bologna to Palermo plunged into the Tyrrhenian Sea, killing all 81 passengers and crew members on board. Rome state attorneys have remained unable to identify the nationality of any military aircraft that may have been involved in the incident. In 2013, Italy's Court of Cassation concluded that a missile strike from an unknown source caused the crash and ruled that investigative cover-ups were definitively established. In 2023, former Italian prime minister Giuliano Amato asserted that a French military missile downed the airliner in an effort to assassinate Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Reactions from legal parties

Representatives for the victims' families attended the court hearing and reacted to the reopening of the inquiry. Daria Bonfietti, president of the Association of the Relatives of the Victims of the Ustica Massacre, welcomed the continuation of the investigation while calling for the prompt delivery of records from Paris.

We welcome the decision to continue the investigation. For the victims' families, this is a significant step after 46 years of waiting and hard work. Now, we need concrete results.

Gregorio Equizi, legal counsel for Giuliana Cavazza, whose parent died in the crash and who leads the Association for Truth on the Air Disaster, noted that the continuation allows examination of alternative hypotheses.

We are satisfied. We succeeded in ensuring the possibility that the terrorist lead of an onboard bomb, which was never seriously explored, will also be investigated. Do not forget what happened a few years after the Ustica disaster with the Pan Am flight that exploded over Lockerbie.