• Hotel Rigopiano, two years ago the avalanche that swept him: 29 dead. Investigations to ascertain truth
  • Rigopiano: screening, 7 suspects, there is a former Prefect

Share

06 February 2019The Pescara Public Prosecutor's Office signed the request for indictment in the main investigation into the tragedy of the Hotel Rigopiano di Farindola (Pescara), swept away on 18 January 2017 by an avalanche that caused 29 deaths.

25 defendants. Among them the former prefect of Pescara
The defendants are 25, including the former Pescara prefect Francesco Provolo, the former president of the Province of Pescara Antonio Di Marco, and the mayor of Farindola Ilario Lacchetta. With respect to the notice of conclusion of the investigation, there are no substantial differences. The investigation by chief prosecutor Massimiliano Serpi and substitute Andrea Papalia focused on the failure to make the avalanche card; on alleged breaches of maintenance and clearing of access roads to the hotel; and on the late setting up of the rescue coordination center.

The other defendants
The other 22 defendants in the proceedings are: the directors and managers of the Civil Protection department, namely Carlo Visca (department director from 2009 to 2012), and Vincenzo Antenucci (manager of the Risk Prevention Service and coordinator of the Coreneva from 2001 to 2013); the technician of the Municipality of Farindola Enrico Colangeli; Bruno Di Tommaso, hotel manager and administrator and legal manager of the "Gran Sasso Resort & SPA" company; Paolo D'Incecco and Mauro Di Blasio, respectively manager and manager of the road service of the Province of Pescara; Leonardo Bianco and Ida De Cesaris, respectively former chief of staff and director of the Prefecture of the Adriatic capital; Pierluigi Caputi, regional director of Public Works until 2014; Carlo Giovani, director of Civil Protection; the former mayors of Farindola Massimiliano Giancaterino and Antonio De Vico; the geologist technician, Luciano Sbaraglia; Marco Paolo Del Rosso, the entrepreneur who asked permission to build the hotel; Antonio Sorgi, director of the parks and environment department of the Abruzzo region; Giuseppe Gatto, editor of the technical report attached to the request of the Gran Sasso spa to intervene on the hotel's canopies and verandas; Andrea Marrone, consultant appointed by Di Tommaso to comply with the provisions on accident prevention; Emidio Rocco Primavera, director of the Public Works Department; Giulio Honorati, commander of the Provincial Police of Pescara; Tino Chiappino, technician available according to the provincial availability plan; Sabatino Belmaggio, responsible for avalanche risk until 2016; the Gran Sasso Resort & Spa company.

The word now to the GUP
The crimes hypothesized by the Public Prosecutor's Office go, in various ways, from the collapse of buildings or other negligent disasters, to murder and culpable injuries, to abuse of office and to ideological forgery. The carabinieri of Pescara were involved in the investigation. The judicial case now passes to the scrutiny of the GUP, who at the preliminary hearing will have to rule on the request of the Public Prosecutor.


The tragedy
On 18 January 2017, Abruzzo is in the midst of a dramatic bad weather emergency. Shortly before 5 pm, an avalanche comes off and overwhelms the Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola, in the province of Pescara. In the resort there are 40 people (28 guests, including four children and 12 employees), who remained 'imprisoned', after the heavy snow had blocked the road that connected the refuge with the valley bottom, despite the appeals had not been able to find a Snowplough turbine to clear the path: 29 people lose their lives, almost all on the spot.



In the following days, the survivors are extracted from the rubble and miraculously extracted. Immediately the inquiry of the Public Prosecutor of Pescara opens, which will give rise to two years of investigations.

"We don't say it, but the cards that made a phone call at 11.38, our discomfort is knowing that the victims could be saved. Five hours - the representatives of the Victims' Committee underlined, remembering that the landslide swept away the hotel in the afternoon - they were enough. The victims could be saved ". Another element on which family members ask for clarity is the use or not of helicopters: "Have helicopters been called for help, yes or no? And if they have not been called, why?", Say the Committee. "We know it is a difficult investigation, but the fault of the avalanche was not the earthquake" and the tremors that occurred that day but "of people who did not do their job well". And on the alleged misdirection, the relatives of the victims have no doubts: "It was possible because no one was immediately removed from his workplace".