Ustica massacre: foundation-museum to commemorate the June 27, 1980 massacre.

Last Updated: June 6, 2024

Strage di Ustica, nasce una fondazione-museo per ricordare l'eccidio del 27 giugno 1980

The “Foundation Museum for the Memory of Ustica” is born on the joint initiative of the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Municipality of Bologna, and other founding promoters, starting from the Association of the relatives of the victims of the Ustica massacre. The Regional Council has approved the draft law that defines the Region’s participation as a public founding partner.

The Foundation, a private and non-profit organization, envisions activities mainly carried out in the Emilia-Romagna territory with the aim of spreading and promoting the memory of the Ustica massacre, in continuity with the work of the Association. Among the objectives, the enhancement, promotion, functional and exhibition adaptation of the Ustica Museum, with its equipment and collections, also through general interest activities for the benefit of the community and cultural, educational, and training projects on themes related to memory and the massacre. The Region’s initial contribution to the Foundation’s assets will be 25,000 euros, followed by 125,000 euros for 2024, 150,000 euros for 2025, and the same amount for 2026.

It was June 27, 1980 when the Itavia company’s DC-9 disappeared from radar. Departing from Bologna’s Guglielmo Marconi airport at 8:08 pm, two hours after the expected time, it never reached its destination in Palermo. It crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea off the island of Ustica, taking 81 people with it. An act of war in peacetime – as the judicial truth will attest in 1999 – after the most varied hypotheses were put forward in the early years: a structural failure, a sudden pressurization anomaly, a mid-air collision, a bomb on board.