ALBERTO COLOMBO
Il disastro aereo del 26 Giugno 1959 a Olgiate Olona

 

2008 - ISBN: 88-8340-367-5 - 208 pages - language: Italian

 

First work dedicated to the plane crash of Olgiate Olona of June 26, 1959, the fifth worst disaster of civil Aviation in Italy. The Trans World Airlines (TWA) Super Constellation L-1649A Starliner Jetstream - flight 891 - struck by lightning exploded in the sky and crashed to ground: seventy mortal lives fulminated by fate.
This story, passed down by an oral tale become implausible, is now on paper.

Taken from Introduction: “There are emotions, events and people that have marked an era. There are stories waiting for being told: one of these is the plane crash of Olgiate Olona of June 26, 1959. The fifth worst disaster of civil Aviation in Italy, the worst happened near Milan-Malpensa Airport and in the province of Varese. A tragedy which generated a huge shock in Italy and worldwide, which deeply touched a community and its people miraculously saved by worst consequences, which changed the life and destiny of persons and families connected with the victims: 61 passengers and 9 crew members on board of the Trans World Airlines (TWA) four-engine Super Constellation L-1649A Starliner Jetstream - flight 891 Athens-Chicago - struck by lightning, exploded in the sky, crashed to ground. Seventy lives fulminated by fate, whose mortal body fell to ground and spirit rose towards immortality. Until now, the memory of this event was passed down by an oral tale become implausible, a popular legend rather than a chronicle of a fact of which there is almost no trace in the network of the “global village”.

This work of journalist Alberto Colombo - resident in Olgiate Olona - sets the oral tales aside and is based on documents, most of which are absolutely unknown. This book is the result of a passionate and meticulous research and presents the story in summary and in chronological order (starting from the chronicles of the time); it includes a large set of notes and dozens of photographs concerning the crash and previously unreleased. This book contains the essential information that many people have looked for so far and hoped to find; it is a useful tool to keep alive the memory of a history long forgotten and now on paper.

 

NOTE: the book is out of stock and not available for sale at bookshops

 

Testimony following the presentation of Alberto Colombo’s book

 

Comments on local mass media and other publications

 

Alberto Colombo’s biography

 

ALBERTO COLOMBO
Settanta vite immortali

 

Commemorative book of 50th anniversary of the plane crash

 

2009 - ISBN: 978-88-8340-467-2 - 150 pages - language: Italian (first part: Italian/English)

 

This work - with the presentation of mayor Giorgio Volpi and introduction of Alberto Colombo, both translated into English - is structured in two parts: the first part contains all the texts (many of which translated into English) and some photographs of the key moments of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of June 26, 2009; the second part offers valuable additions to the book Il disastro aereo del 26 Giugno 1959 a Olgiate Olona, including the testimony of relatives of the victims, rescuers and eyewitnesses, and other photographs of that time.

This book adds other elements previously unreleased received by the author from Italy and from abroad; it provides other essential pieces to the story by completing the first work.

 

NOTE: the book is out of stock and not available for sale at bookshops

 

Speech of Alberto Colombo at the closing ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the plane crash, Town hall of Olgiate Olona, December 12, 2009

 

Alberto Colombo’s biography

ERNANDO DE DIONIGI
Il disastro aereo del 26 giugno 1959

 

oil on canvas - cm 70x50

 

Work created for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary by the artist Ernando De Dionigi (1941-2020) - resident in Olgiate Olona - an eyewitness of the plane crash of June 26, 1959; the painting was donated to the Municipality of Olgiate Olona and is located in the mayor’s office. It was reproduced on the postcard commemorating the 50th anniversary in 2009.

Comment of the critic Walter Fontana, who was also an eyewitness of the plane crash of Olgiate Olona:
“The painting by Ernando De Dionigi can be categorized as realist and symbolist work. In the occasion of the first vision I had during its execution, I was immediately stimulated a double interpretation of the representation which was taking form on the canvas. It’s a realist work because of the faithful reproduction of what actually happened: dark tones, leaden sky, houses barely touched by the fuselage, faithful witness of dynamics of the accident. It’s symbolist because among the trees and the branches burned one can still see the stolen glances of that afternoon, the destinies broken... Burned branches that allude to lives irrevocably dissolved. A surprising coincidence: one branch for every soul vanished in the sky of Olgiate Olona that Friday afternoon in 1959”.

 

Ernando De Dionigi’s biography

 

NICOLA PUDDU - PANAMA BUS
Olgiate Olona, 26 giugno 1959

 

audio CD and DVD - production: June 2009
Copyrighted song (SIAE registration no. 177325)

 

Song inspired by the reading of book Il disastro aereo del 26 Giugno 1959 a Olgiate Olona, produced for the 50th anniversary of the plane crash of Olgiate Olona and first proposed during the Evening of memory of June 26, 2009, in the Prepositural St. Stephen and Lawrence church of Olgiate Olona. This composition evokes the image of Mary Belknap, ten year-old American girl who perished in the plane crash of June 26, 1959 whose body was found embraced to one of the hostesses. The story of tragic and unlucky epilogue of the earthly life of this child - she was traveling alone on the plane crashed, entrusted by her mother to the plane crew in Rome-Ciampino Airport - is chosen as the symbol of the accident.

The following is the video of the song containing the original footage shot by TV reporters at the crash site.

 

 

Olgiate Olona, 26 giugno 1959

 

(lyrics and music: Nicola Puddu)

 

Between heaven and earth,
between river and sea
there your flight stopped
without a ‘because’.
Dark afternoon
made of rain and tears
Smoke and silence
embracing the houses.
Mary with the eyes of a child
alone as her journey begins;
her father is there beyond the ocean, waiting,
but the hours will pass quickly.
The plane flies towards its fate
a fate coloured in strong shades of pain and tears
inside the mystery of seventy lives
made into one family by that fatal bolt.
What remains is an embrace
which now brings us close
in our days that have passed
with such speed.
And there’s no Italy, no France,
no America:
there’s only the most important journey of all
that awaits us.
Ten years so quickly gone by
in your eyes life’s mystery:
“Hold me, Mary, now hold on to me tight
for this lightning is death’s voice”.
The plane flies towards its fate
a fate coloured in strong shades of pain and tears
inside the mystery of seventy lives
made into one family in one cruel blow.
The aircraft flies beyond the storm
where there is light, there is hope, there is love
and no mystery, where the sky ends
Mary smiles, Mary lives on.
Summer’s day
history remembered:
the blue and this countryside
whisper of you.

 

(translation: Eileen Robinson)

ALBERTO COLOMBO
26 giugno a Olgiate Olona

 

2015

 

In 2015, Alberto Colombo summarized with words in poetry the genesis and the meaning of the commemorative events which have regained strength and significance since 2008.

 

26 giugno a Olgiate Olona

(June 26 in Olgiate Olona)

 

At three quarters of the twentieth century,
the pietas of a patient grandmother
educated her grandson, with simplicity,
to the memory of June 26, 1959:
fatal but providential tragedy,
which by saving Olgiate Olona
made the spirit of seventy lives immortal.

 

Half a century after that disaster,
that son of the people and Olgiate Olona
dared to join out of pietas
the sky and the earth of those who suffered and now remember.
Distances filled, wounds soothed,
eternal rest and resignation
comfort and seal the memory.

 

Generation after generation,
for those who learn and sow the pietas
the memory of June 26, 1959, means
gestural words and deafening silences,
memories relived and History evoked.
Memory is heritage and practice,
immortal life is the reason for everything.

 

(translation: Nicola Puddu)

 

Alberto Colombo’s biography

CRISTIANO COMELLI
In memoria del 26 giugno 1959

 

2009

 

Poem inspired to the plane crash of Olgiate Olona, composed for the 50th anniversary and proposed during the Evening of memory of June 26, 2009, in the Prepositural St. Stephen and Lawrence church of Olgiate Olona; it evokes the disaster of June 26, 1959.

 

In memoria del 26 giugno 1959

(In memory of June 26, 1959)

 

Plates unable to dress with words
yet they can talk
they are a broken symphony of a flight born as a poem
to caress an ivory sky and discover to be madness.
Seventy breaths of crystal greet the earth helplessly
end of a theater of horror terribly unpredictable.
Olgiate is like a majestic whale
mortally wounded in its back by the copper dagger
of a fate which slips away grinning from the hands of every rational mind.
The tears are hiding in the arms of a yearned oblivion
and trembling to remember a breath of existence forever bitten by rust.
A helpless womb roaring
the fresh and heartbreaking cry of a life that will never become life.
Flags that smell of smoke of annihilation
biting the air with dreadful precision
cry on their own colors.
A small tombstone blows a kiss to angels sucked into a cloud
without realizing they have become angels.

 

(translation: Nicola Puddu)

 

Cristiano Comelli’s biography