Two lawyers have gone missing after their ultralight aircraft vanished shortly after take-off.
Angela Buccico, 56, and Carlo Arnulfo, 64, departed from the airfield at Capo d’Orlando, Italy, at around 9:30am on Sunday (16 August).
They were due to land at Sibari airfield in Cassano allo Ionio, across the Tyrrhenian Sea, around 90 minutes later, but never arrived.
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At 10.24am, Angela sent her family a photograph of the volcanic island of Stromboli taken from the air.
It is believed to be one of the last known contacts from the pair, as reported by Need To Know.
Mario Varca, president of Sibari Fly and manager of the airstrip where the plane was expected to land, said the aircraft should then have continued towards the Calabrian Tyrrhenian coast.
He said: “Crossing over Cosenza at an altitude of around 4,000 feet, they would have reached Sibari. But it never arrived.”
Carlo, who was piloting the small aircraft, has spent 30 years practising in Rome’s courts.
He is a highly regarded criminal and civil lawyer whose clients have included celebrities and politicians.
The Tecnam P2008’s transponder is not transmitting a signal, suggesting it may have either been switched off or malfunctioned.
There also appears to have been no precise flight plan, which is not mandatory for such a small ultralight aircraft.
As a result, rescuers have little information about the plane’s exact whereabouts.
A major search operation is now scouring the Tyrrhenian Sea off Cosenza as well as the rugged terrain of Calabria’s Pollino area.
Rescuers reportedly believe the most likely scenario is that the aircraft crashed somewhere in the Aspromonte mountains.
However, emergency services have received no reports of an accident.
Rome-based lawyer Andrea Manasse, who trained under Carlo for several years, told local media: “Carlo is extremely experienced, he has been a pilot for 30 years. For now, I refuse to speak about him in the past tense.
“He is one of the most extraordinary legal minds in Italy, a genius. He helped me enormously throughout my life; I consider him like a father. His son Manfredi is rushing back from his holiday. We all hope it isn’t true.”
Angela’s brother, Rocco Buccico, added: “It’s a difficult time, but we are putting our faith in the search operation.”
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