Italy crash skyscraper reopens

Three people, including the pilot, died and 29 people were injured in the disaster

MILAN, Italy (CNN) -- Italy's tallest building has reopened for business four days after a plane slammed into it, killing three people and reviving fears of a September 11 terror attack.

A crowd gathered outside the Pirelli Tower in central Milan as office workers filed into the bottom 11 floors of the building.

Two floors of the landmark 32-storey tower were badly damaged when a single-engine Commander 112 aircraft smashed into it last Thursday.

"It's sad," office worker Gianfranca told Reuters news agency as she entered the building, bathed in spring sunshine. "September 11 has left us scared. Now, whenever we see a plane go by, we shudder."

CNN NewsPass VIDEO A small private plane slammed into Milan's tallest building, killing at least three people and injuring dozens. CNN's Jim Clancy reports (April 18) Play video The plane punched holes in both sides of the building. (April 18) Play video   MORE STORIES • Witnesses talk of Milan plane horror  • New Yorkers' first thought: 'Not again'  • Chronology: Skyscraper disasters    RESOURCES • Gallery: Pictures of the crash scene  • The flight path  • The Pirelli building     Crash chronology Italian authorities detailed the events leading up to Thursday's crash. 5:39 p.m.: Fasulo asks the control tower at Linate airport for permission to land. 5:42 p.m.: Fasulo tells the tower he's having problems with his landing gear; the tower asks him to circle over a nearby private airport. 5:43 p.m.: Fasulo tells the tower that he is trying to manually lower the plane's landing gear. 5:44 p.m.: The tower gets no response when it tries to contact Fasulo. 5:47 or 5:48 p.m.: The aircraft hits the Pirelli building.

The area around the base of the building is still littered with paper, twisted metal and broken glass. One woman collapsed in tears as she stepped inside.

Emergency workers are continuing to clear debris from the 26th and 27th floors which were devastated in the crash.

Experts say the structure is intact but it is not known when the upper floors, used by the Lombardy regional administration, will be reopened.

The crash -- which killed two women lawyers, injured 29 others and ripped a jagged gash in two facades of the skyscraper -- briefly revived fears of a new September 11 terror attack.

Meanwhile, doctors have begun an autopsy on the 68-year-old Swiss-Italian pilot who inexplicably flew his plane into the building.

Officials still do not know whether Luigi Fasulo committed suicide due to money problems, fell ill at the controls of his aircraft or was the victim of a disastrous technical problem.

Authorities believe the autopsy on Fasulo's dismembered body -- which along with the plane's engine passed through the skyscraper and landed on one of its terraces -- could indicate whether he had fallen ill at the controls.

An experienced pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flight time accumulated over 30 years, Fasulo took off from nearby Locarno in southern Switzerland.

But as he approached Linate airport, he told the control tower he had trouble with the plane's landing gear.

The plane then turned towards the heart of the city and flying at low altitude crashed into the tower, named after the Pirelli tyre-to-cable firm.

The blackened remains of the plane are being examined to see whether the landing gear had stuck. The position of the throttle could help establish whether Fasulo had cut speed while trying manually to release the landing gear.

On the morning of the crash, Fasulo went to police in Italy's Como town near Locarno to complain he had been swindled out of one million euros ($890,000) by an Italian who was later arrested in France.

Fasulo's son, Marco, had told Rome's La Repubblica newspaper that it may have been a deliberate act induced by despair over financial problems. (Full story)

Fasulo was a pilot with 30 years flight experience.

But Milan police say Marco has since denied making any such comments and Fasulo's wife, Filomena, told CNN she planned to sue the newspaper over the report.

A pin-ball machine and jukebox supply company run by Fasulo and his wife went into liquidation last month.

Fasulo, who held joint Swiss and Italian nationality, listed one of his companies, Playmatic SA, on the 2002 Swiss company directory for being bankrupt, The Associated Press said.

The family has confirmed he had had recent financial troubles but scoffed at speculation he had taken his life.

"He was full of life and happy," the family said in a statement. "The entire Fasulo family rules out the hypothesis that it was suicide."

Interior Minister Claudio Scajola has also said suicide was not a logical explanation. "Even if the goal was to cash in on a life insurance policy, he would have done that differently," Scajola told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Pressure is mounting for tighter rules over small planes. Last October a Scandinavian Airlines System commercial jet hit a private plane on a runway at Milan's Linate airport, killing 118 people.