A state funeral was held this morning in Rome, in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, for Army Sergeants Simone Ruggia and Claudio Marchesi, and for Sergeant and Lieutenant of the Red Cross Military Corps Laura Procacci and Franco Adriano Zecchillo, who died in the helicopter crash in Bosnia.

The celebration is entrusted to Monsignor Gian Franco Saba, military ordinary for Italy.

The ceremony was attended by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, Lorenzo Fontana and Ignazio La Russa, and several ministers.

Many colleagues, friends, and relatives, as well as ordinary citizens, paid their respects yesterday afternoon at the remains of Ruggia, Marchesi, and Zecchillo in the funeral chapel. "He was too good, too exuberant, he was simply too much," said an aunt of Marchesi. Meanwhile, a colleague of Ruggia's recalls that they last spoke a week ago, shortly before his departure for Bosnia: "He was enthusiastic, very enthusiastic," she says, explaining that he had recently gotten married.

Laura Procacci's body, however, was first taken from Ciampino to the Tor Vergata Polyclinic for an autopsy ordered by the Rome Prosecutor's Office, and then to the Celio Cemetery mortuary. After the accident, she was taken alive to a Bosnian hospital, where she died shortly thereafter. An external examination of the bodies of the other three victims in Bosnia has already revealed that their deaths were due to a violent crushing.

The Piazzale Clodio prosecutor, Francesco Saverio Musolino, is proceeding against unknown persons for negligent disaster, manslaughter, and bodily harm. The city's investigators have already interviewed the three pilots and the survivors, through law enforcement officers dispatched to the scene, but it is possible they will be interviewed again as soon as conditions permit. Among them is Lieutenant Colonel Flavio Favari, a medic, the third member of the Red Cross Medevac team and the sole survivor of the medical team that also included Zecchillo and Procacci.

At the moment, the most likely cause is a vehicle failure, but further answers will come from a technical consultation that will be arranged.

The investigation will focus in particular on technical investigations of the Chinook wreckage and analysis of the black box, elements considered fundamental to reconstructing what happened in the moments preceding the crash.

(Unioneonline/vl)

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