Alitalia (operated by Carpatair ) ATR-72 suffers landing accident at Rome-Fiumicino -UPDATED-

A Carpatair  ATR-72-500 on behalf of Alitalia, registration YR-ATS performing flight V3-1670/AZ-1670 from Pisa to Rome Fiumicino (Italy) with 46 passengers and 4 crew, landed on Fiumicino’s runway 16L (runway 3) at about 20:32L (19:32Z) but veered right off the runway and came to a stop on soft ground with the right main and nose gear collapsed. The aircraft was evacuated. A passenger received a serious injury (broken femur), the first officer received a serious spinal injury, 4 passengers received minor injuries, all 6 were taken to hospitals. The aircraft received substantial damage to right main and nose gear, nose, right hand propeller and engine.

Runway 25 was not available for landings due to work in progress.

Passengers reported the aircraft bounced on landing and touched down hard a second time at which time the right main gear obviously bent and the aircraft veered off the runway.

Alitalia reported the aircraft experienced difficulties in the final stages of the approach due to strong winds, which led to the aircraft leaving the runway. One of the passengers received a fracture of the femur, all passengers requiring medical care have been taken to hospitals. All flights operated by Carpatair on behalf of Alitalia have been suspended.

On Feb 4th 2013 Italy’s Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza del Volo (ANSV) announced they had immediately opened an investigation into the runway excursion rated an accident and sent investigators on site on Feb 2nd. French (state of manufacture) and Romanian (state of operator) investigators joined the investigation. Some of the 46 passengers and 4 crew received injuries, any assumptions about the causes of the accident are premature.

(http://avherald.com)