Editing Enrico Mattei (section)

==Death==
On a 27 October 1962 flight from [[Catania]], Sicily, to the Milan [[Linate Airport]], Mattei's jetplane, a [[Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris]], crashed in the surroundings of the small village of [[Bascapè]] in [[Lombardy]]. The cause of the accident has been a mystery. There are strong indications that the crash was caused by a bomb hidden in the aeroplane.<ref name=time021162/><ref>[http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19621027-0 Accident description]. [[Aviation Safety Network]].</ref> All three men on board were killed: Mattei, his pilot [[Irnerio Bertuzzi]], and the American [[Time–Life]] journalist [[William McHale]]. The inquiries officially declared that it was an accident. The [[Italian Minister of Defense]], [[Giulio Andreotti]], was responsible for the accident investigation.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

During his controversial tenure at ENI, Mattei had made many enemies. The [[U.S. National Security Council]] described him as an irritation and an obstacle in a classified report from 1958. The French could not forgive him for doing business with the [[pro-independence movement in Algeria]]. Responsibility for his death has been attributed to the [[CIA]], to the French OAS, and to the [[Sicilian Mafia]].<ref name=ind290897/>

According to a 2001 TV documentary by [[Bernhard Pletschinger]] and [[Claus Bredenbrock]], evidence was immediately destroyed at the crash site. Flight instruments were put into acid. On 25 October 1995, the Italian public service broadcaster [[RAI]] reported the [[exhumation]] of the human remains of Mattei and Bertuzzi. Metal debris deformed by an explosion was found in the bones. There is speculation that the fuse of an [[improvised explosive device|explosive device]] was triggered by the mechanism of the landing gear. In 1994, the investigations were reopened. In 1997, a metal indicator and a ring were further analyzed by Donato Firrao of the [[Polytechnic University of Turin]] and explosion tracks were found.<ref name=bomb>Firrao, Donato & Ubertalli, Graziano (24–26 June 2009). [http://www.gruppofrattura.it/ocs/index.php/cigf/igf20/paper/viewFile/781/698 "Was there a bomb on Mattei's aircraft?"]. ''Atti del XX Convegno Nazionale del Gruppo Italiano Frattura''.</ref> Based on this evidence, the episode was reclassified by the judge as a homicide but with one or more perpetrators unknown.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

Not trusting the Armed Forces Information Service (''Servizio informazioni forze armate'', SIFAR), Italy's secret service, even though it was full of his loyal supporters, Mattei constituted a sort of personal security guard made of former partisans, ENI staff by whom he felt protected.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

=== Theories about his death ===
According to {{ill|Phillipe Thyraud de Vosjoli|fr}}, a former agent of the French secret service [[SDECE]], SDECE agents were responsible for the 1962 plane crash which took the life of Mattei. Mattei was on the verge of engineering an Italian takeover of French oil interests in Algeria. A French agent code-named Laurent sabotaged Mattei's aircraft.<ref name=kruger>{{cite book |chapter=The French intelligence Zoo |chapter-url=http://quixoticjoust.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-great-heroin-coup-chapters-2-3-4.html | title=The Great Heroin Coup - Drugs, Intelligence & International Fascism | url=https://quixoticjoust.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_6.html | publisher=[[South End Press]] | last=Kruger |first=Henrik | year=1980 | location=Boston | isbn=0-89608-031-5 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140802142031/https://quixoticjoust.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_6.html | archive-date=2 August 2014 |url-status=live}}. Foreword by [[Peter Dale Scott]]. Originally published in Danish as ''Smukke Serge og Heroien'', Bogan, 1976.</ref>

When preparing the film ''[[The Mattei Affair]]'' in 1970, [[Francesco Rosi]] asked the journalist [[Mauro De Mauro]] to investigate the last days of Mattei in [[Sicily]].<ref name=ind290897/> De Mauro soon obtained an audio-tape of his last speech and spent days studying it. De Mauro disappeared eight days after he retrieved the tape on 16 September 1970 without leaving a trace. His body was never found.<ref name=ind290897/><ref name=ind190605>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150925191517/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/revealed-how-story-of-mafia-plot-to-launch-coup-cost-reporter-his-life-8016392.html "Revealed: how story of Mafia plot to launch coup cost reporter his life"]. ''[[The Independent on Sunday]]''. 19 June 2005.</ref> All the [[Carabinieri]] and [[police]] investigators who searched for De Mauro, and consequently investigated his presumed kidnapping, were later killed. Among them, the general [[Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa]] and [[Boris Giuliano]] were both killed by the Mafia.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

[[Tommaso Buscetta]], an important Mafia turncoat (''[[pentito]]''), declared that the Sicilian Mafia had been involved in the murder of Mattei. According to Buscetta, Mattei was killed at the request of [[Angelo Bruno]] of the [[American Mafia]] because his policies had damaged important American interests in the Middle East.<ref name=rep230594/><ref name=arlacchi79>Arlacchi, ''Addio Cosa Nostra'', pp. 79-83.</ref> Journalist De Mauro was subsequently killed in 1970 because his investigation of Mattei's death was getting close to the truth.<ref name=rep230594>[http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1994/05/23/buscetta-cosa-nostra-uccise-enrico-mattei.html "Buscetta: 'Cosa nostra uccise Enrico Mattei'"]. ''[[La Repubblica]]''. 23 May 1994. {{in lang|it}}</ref> [[Gaetano Iannì]], another ''pentito'', declared that a special agreement had been achieved between the Sicilian Mafia and some foreigners for the elimination of Mattei, which was organized by [[Giuseppe Di Cristina]].<ref name=rep210694>[http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1994/06/21/fu-di-cristina-sabotare-aereo.html "Fu Di Cristina a sabotare l'aereo di Enrico Mattei"]. ''La Repubblica''. 21 June 1994 {{in lang|it}}.</ref> These statements triggered new inquiries, including the exhumation of Mattei's corpse.<ref name=ind290897/>

Admiral [[Fulvio Martini]], later chief of [[SISMI]] (Italy's military secret service), declared that Mattei's plane had been shot down.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} In 1986, former Italian Prime Minister [[Amintore Fanfani]] described the accident as a shooting, perhaps the first act of [[terrorism in Italy]].{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}