A twin engine Cessna and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) jetliner collide in heavy fog during takeoff from Milan, Italy, killing 118 people.
The Linate Airport disaster occurred in Italy at Linate Airport in Milan on the morning of Monday, 8 October 2001. Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 686, a McDonnell Douglas MD-87 airliner carrying 110 people bound for Copenhagen, Denmark, collided on take-off with a Cessna Citation CJ2:1 business jet carrying four people bound for Paris, France. All 114 people on both aircraft were killed, as well as four people on the ground.The subsequent investigation determined that the collision was caused by a number of nonfunctioning and nonconforming safety systems, standards, and procedures at the airport.:125 It remains the deadliest accident in Italian aviation history.
The Cessna Aircraft Company () was an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. The company produced small, piston-powered aircraft, as well as business jets. For much of the mid-to-late 20th century, Cessna was one of the highest-volume and most diverse producers of general aviation aircraft in the world. It was founded in 1927 and was purchased by General Dynamics in 1985, then by Textron, Inc., in 1992. In March 2014, when Textron purchased the Beechcraft and Hawker Aircraft corporations, Cessna ceased operations as a subsidiary company and joined the others as one of the three distinct brands produced by Textron Aviation.