Edge's News: Millionaire Romanian property developer among eight dead in Milan plane crash

A small single-engined plane carrying six passengers and a crew of two has crashed into the side of an empty two-storey office building in a Milan suburb, killing everyone onboard.

Investigators opened an inquiry into what caused the private plane to crash shortly after take-off from Milan’s Linate airport en route to Olbia airport on the Italian island of Sardinia. A thick column of dark smoke rose from the crash site and was visible for miles. Several parked cars nearby went up in flames.

The billionaire’s 65-year-old wife, their son Dan Stefano, 30, and a child were also among the eight people aboard the plane that died in the wreck, according to Corriere and the AGI news agency.

Petrescu, 68, was one of Romania’s richest men, having built his estimated $3 billion fortune in real estate and through ownership of a chain of supermarkets and malls. He also held German citizenship.

Corriere Della Sera reported Petrescu’s wife, son, and five friends were on the plane, as well as a 1-year-old child who had been baptized the day before.

The family was headed to their villa in Olbia, where Petrescu’s elderly mother was waiting for them, Corriere said. The plane was bought in 2015 by Petrescu together with Vova Cohn, a former shareholder of the football club Dinamo Bucharest.

Milan prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano told reporters at the scene that the plane was proceeding on its flight until “a certain point, then an anomaly appeared on the radar screen and it plunged”, striking the building’s roof.

Control tower officials reported the anomaly, she said, but further details on that weren’t immediately given.

The prosecutor said the plane didn’t send out any alarm. It was too early to cite any possible cause for the crash, Siciliano said, adding that the flight recorder has been retrieved.

In #Milan Italy, a private plane flying between Milan & italian island #sardinia has crashed into an office building killing all 7 aboard! Being flown by 30yr old Dan Petrescu a #German citizen born in Romania, a property tycoon worth a 3 billion euros!@W0lverineupdate pic.twitter.com/EZoZe0Gowm

— Victor 🇮🇳🇬🇧 (@cool_crusader) October 4, 2021

By early evening, only two of the eight dead had been identified, since they carried documents on them, Siciliano said. Those aboard were “all foreigners” she said, including the pilot, who was Romanian. The aircraft was registered in Romania, she added.

Italian news reports said the pilot, 30, also had German citizenship. The second person identified was a Romanian woman in her 60s who also held French citizenship, the reports said.

The reports said the aircraft had flown from Bucharest, Romania, to Milan on 30 September with no apparent problem.

Dan Petrescu, 68, was considered by the Romanian press one of the richest – and most mysterious – men in the country. Nickname: “The Shadow Billionaire”.

His personal assets, according to local media, varies between one and three billion euros. Approximate calculation because Petrescu, whose parable ended tragically at the cloche of Pilate Pc-12, who fell today in San Donato Milanese, had moved his residence to the Principality of Monaco, domiciled at Columbia Palace on Avenue Princesse Grace.

Petrescu var business partner with the legendary tycoon and former Romanian tennis player Ion Tiriac, The “Brasov vampire”, who began to build up his wealth in Germany after a top sports career, as he prided himself on being “the best tennis player who can not play tennis”.

Founder of the first Romanian private bank after Ceausescu, with the company, then expanded to the insurance sector, real estate and indirectly to all branches of the economy, Tiriac was the first Romanian to appear (2007) on the list of the world’s Scrooge ‘compiled by’ Forbes’. Insane collectors of children, estimated at over thirty, and luxury cars, estimated at over 400.

Petrescu, in his wake, had climbed the golden ladders of success, but unlike Tiriac nothing flutters or at most poverty. Romanian newspapers place their interests in Unicredit iriac Bank, in the Rocar portfolio, and in the real estate industry as the owner of, among other things, supermarkets and shopping centers in the country. From fifteen to twenty, according to sources quoted by the Romanian press.

Petrescu’s business relationship also included them former shareholders of Dinamo Bucharest football club Vova Cohn, which he bought in 2015, the plane on which he died today.

The news about Petrescu in Italy is very meager. Only the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in a statement the deaths in the plane crash “two Romanian citizens with dual citizenship”. The Romanian Consulate General in Milan took action on its own initiative to provide any assistance to the Italian authorities, to facilitate the possible repatriation of bodies, and facilitate legal proceedings.

The Italian news agency Ansa quoted the national air safety agency ANSV as saying “the plane hit the building and started burning”. It said the aircraft was a PC-12, a single-engine, executive-type plane.

Fire officials said earlier that the aircraft had crashed into the building’s facade. But following further inspection, the prosecutor said it was apparent that the plane had struck the roof.

Firefighters extinguished the flames at the badly charred and gutted building, which reportedly was under renovation.