touching the ground, showers, strong southwest wind gusts, and very poor horizontal visibility (). At this point, the tower asked for the pilot's position. After a few minutes of silence (at 16:59) came the reply: "Quota . QDM on Pino, then we will cut at Superga". At Pino Torinese, which is located between Chieri and Baldissero Torinese, southeast of Turin, there was a VDF radio station (VHF direction finder), to provide a QDM (magnetic course to be taken on a head on approach as a radio aid) on request. On approach, the plane lined up with the runway at Aeritalia about away to the west, at above sea level, with Pino at 290° off its nose. Just north of Pino Torinese was the Basilica of Superga, situated on a hill at above sea level. One theory for the deviation is that due to the strong left crosswinds, the plane could have suffered a drift to starboard, which shifted from the axis of descent and lined up with the hill of Superga. Recent investigations also suggested the possibility that the altimeter had malfunctioned and locked at , which led the pilots to believe that they were at a higher altitude. At 17:03, the plane made a turn to the left, returned to level flight, and had aligned to prepare for landing when it crashed into the back of the embankment of the Basilica of Superga. The pilot, who likely believed that the Superga hill was off to his right, would have seen it suddenly emerge directly in front of him (speed , visibility ) and been unable to react. The wreckage did not give any indication of an attempt to go around. The only part of the aircraft which remained partially intact was the empennage. At 17:05, Aeritalia Torre called I-ELCE, but received no response. Of the 31 people on board, none survived. Victims Players Valerio Bacigalupo Aldo Ballarin Dino Ballarin Émile Bongiorni Eusebio Castigliano Rubens Fadini Guglielmo Gabetto Ruggero Grava Giuseppe Grezar Ezio Loik Virgilio Maroso Danilo Martelli Valentino Mazzola Romeo Menti Piero Operto Franco Ossola Mario Rigamonti Július Schubert Coaching staff Ottavio Corina, massage therapist Ernő Egri Erbstein, manager Leslie Lievesley, coach Club officials Arnaldo Agnisetta, general manager Andrea Bonaiuti, travel organizer Ippolito Civalleri, travel escort Journalists Renato Casalbore Luigi Cavallero Renato Tosatti Flight crew Cesare Biancardi, co-pilot Celestino D'Inca, engineer Pierluigi Meroni, pilot Antonio Pangrazi, radio operator Aftermath