35 years have passed since the disaster Moby Princethe ferry that collided with the oil tanker on 10 April 1991 Agip Abruzzooff the coast of Livorno, killing 140 people, most of them literally burned alive by the oil that had become a torch. The tragedy still has no culprit.
It is 10 April 1991, a spring day like many others: at 10.25pm the Navarma ferry Moby Prince collided with the Agip Abruzzo, a Snam oil tanker, 2.7 miles (about 5km) from the Livorno coast. It is a true human and environmental disaster: 140 people including passengers and crew of the Moby die, mainly due to the crude oil spill on the ferry.
A fiery apocalypse, probably the greatest tragedy of the Italian navy, which remains, even today after over 30 years, a mystery. Only one survivor on the ferry, Alessio Bertrandthe ship’s hub at the time. No casualties, however, on the tanker.
An unsolved mystery, a wound that still burns
The dynamics is known: the bow of the Moby practically enters completely into tank number 7 of the tanker, causing the spillage of the crude oil, which at that point became an immense torch with the ignition of the flames, in turn caused, perhaps, by the friction of the sheets of metal. And the rescue services, although alerted immediately, only identified the ferry at 11.35pm, when there was nothing left to do for the victims.
But why all this? Fog? Speeding? An explosion? A fault in the on-board equipment? Someone, at the time, even hypothesized that it was a distraction on the part of those who were supposed to be supervising, who were perhaps watching the Juventus-Barcelona UEFA Cup semi-final, broadcast on TV at that very hour. But in reality nothing has yet been established. The case, reopened by a parliamentary commission in 2018, has not yet been resolved.
“One hundred and forty deaths, the unbearable price of the most serious accident in our civil navigation. A tragedy that could and should have been avoided and which was followed, moreover, by disorganization and delays in the management of rescue operations” commented the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, 35 years after the disaster.
But still nothing. Almost 40 years after that hellish day, there is no culprit and no justice for the victims and their families.
