Failed landing at Rome airport suspends contract between Romanian airline and Alitalia

Romanian airline Carpatair was involved in an incident which left 16 people injured after a failed landing at Rome's Fiumicino airport over the weekend. The Romanian airline was operating a 50-person flight for Alitalia, with whom it currently has a contract, and the pilot missed the landing. Following the incident, the partnership between the Italian and the Romanian companies was suspended for the routes Rome - Ancona, Rome - Pisa and Rome - Bologna. Carpatair was operating the Pisa - Rome flight on Saturday (February 2 ) and the pilot reportedly tried to land a couple of times, but when he was finally got the plane down, it went off the runway and landed on the grass. Two of the 16 people injured were still in hospital on Sunday evening, but their conditions were not life-threatening. The cause of the incident is yet unknown, but the head of the Rome airport civil aviation unit Vitaliano Turra initially said a combination of factors were to blame. According to him, the wind speed was 50 kilometers per hour, but that this should not have caused problem when landing. After the incident, Alitalia erased its logo from the plane involved in the accident, according to Italian media. Three other incidents in January on flights covered by Carpatair for Alitalia were also mentioned. The two companies have been working on Italian routes since the spring of 2012, when Carpatair won a bid to cover some of Alitalia's internal flights, using two ATR 72-500 planes, with a capacity of 70 seats each. Carpatair is owned by Nicolae Petrov, who is also the head of the company's board and its executive manager. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Carpatair)