Commemorative events of June 26, 1959
• Rewarded in 2011 with medal of the President of the Italian Republic •
year:
2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014
2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 1993 | 1959-1964
Commemorative events 2022
In 2022 the educational project in memory of the plane crash has been addressed to the students of III B and III D classes of “Dante Alighieri” school in Olgiate Olona.
Commemoration of 63rd anniversary of the plane crash
The commemoration of June 26, 2022, in front of the memorial monument of the plane crash, was attended by the relatives of the seventy immortal lives coming from Italy, a representative of Comitato 8 ottobre committee (relatives of the victims of Milan-Linate air disaster), the associations of Olgiate Olona and Associazione arma aeronautica of Gallarate, the five students in the eighth grade authors of the most deserving works produced in the twelfth edition of the educational project in memory of June 26, 1959: all were awarded with a merit certificate, and the author of the best work Anita Garindo read her work and received a book-coupon sponsored by arch. Maria Chiara Bianchi. At the beginning of the ceremony, all those who collaborated to the commemorative events and who passed away after the 60th anniversary to join the seventy immortal lives, were remembered: painter Ernando De Dionigi, volunteer Giuseppe Mario Cerana, Red Cross volunteer nurse Enrica Castiglioni, custodian of Olgiate Olona town hall Mario Canavesi, rescuer fireman Antonio Monti, sponsors Giovanni Pietro Albini, Piero Balossi Restelli and Maurizio Ferrero, the curator of the Serata della memoria concert of 50th anniversary Massimo Aspesani. The commemorative speech was given by the Deputy Mayor Paolo Maccabei.
(page containing the works of the students in the eighth grade rewarded)
June 26, 2022 - Beginning of the ceremony
Commemoration of June 26, 2022
Commemorative speech of Olgiate Olona deputy mayor
Thank you all for being here in front of the memorial monument of the plane crash of 1959. There we find again after two years without being able to carry out the public ceremony and one year without the educational project addressed to the students of Beato Contardo Ferrini school which I thank you very much: everyone, teachers and pupils. Special thanks go to all the students in the eighth grade who took part in the 12 editions of the project: over 1,200 young people involved to keep the memory alive. My affectionate greeting go to the families of the victims, many of them attended the ceremonies of the past and even today they are here with us.
These last two years have been difficult times of pandemic where the people of Olgiate Olona have shown fundamental characteristics: generosity, altruism and a big heart in helping others in difficulty. Me, that in this moment I’m representing our community, I am extremely proud of this as well as sentimentally moved. A big heart that our fathers proved to have in the tragic hours of the 1959 disaster: everyone took action to lend a hand, to contribute to the rescuing operations, dramatic operations to recompose the poor remains of the victims.
63 years ago, on June 26 at 5.33 pm, during a strong storm over the skies of Olgiate Olona, the Lockheed Super Constellation of the American company TWA, one of the most modern aircraft of the time, was hit by lightning which ignited the fuel vapours escaping from one of the tanks. An event as fatal as rare. The terrible crash of the plane killed 70 victims defined as immortal lives in the book dedicated to the disaster of Olgiate Olona. Precisely, these ceremonies make the event immortal and, above all, do make immortal the people who lost their lives here in Olgiate Olona, headed to Paris airport and then overseas to Chicago in the United States. Victims who remain immortal also thanks to the work of the organizers of the commemoration, thanks to Administrations who have succeed one another, and thanks to the students in the eighth grade with their meditations and their works.
Victims, names, souls who interrupted their lives here 63 years ago and left their loved ones: children, wives, brothers, sisters. Men and women who have not been able to complete their life path, who did not manage to become grandparents or fathers or mothers. And we are here to remember them, because it is an institutional duty, but also moral. Their lives, tragically broken 63 years ago, will be precisely immortal, thanks to generosity and faith of the people of Olgiate Olona.
arch. Paolo Maccabei
Olgiate Olona deputy mayor
Documents related to the commemorative events of 2022
Commemoration of June 26, 2022 - 63rd anniversary
International prayer in suffrage
Commemorative speech of Olgiate Olona deputy mayor
June 10, 2022 - Press releases of Municipality of Olgiate Olona
Selection of articles related to the commemorative events of 2022
InformazioneOnline.it June 27, 2022
Disastro aereo, oggi come 63 anni fa «il grande cuore di Olgiate»
Malpensa24.it June 26, 2022
Disastro di Olgiate, «le commemorazioni rendono le vittime immortali»
Malpensa24.it June 24, 2022
Domenica alle 17.33 Olgiate si ferma per ricordare il disastro aereo del 1959
La prealpina June 24, 2022
Il film della sciagura
VareseNews.it June 10, 2022
Torna in presenza la cerimonia in ricordo delle vittime del disastro aereo di Olgiate Olona
