An Itavia Airlines DC-9 plane exploded near the small island of Ustica with 93 civilian passengers on board. Many experts referred to a controversial thesis of a military error as some NATO fighter jets were then chasing Libyan planes flying over Italian territory. The discovery of a Libyan plane that crashed in the Calabrian mountains seemed to back this thesis. However, the defense secret was imposed and, according to the official version, no NATO aircraft had flown over Italian territory and the crash of the Libyan plane was only a coincidence. It was only on September 28, 2000, after 20 years of investigation obstructed by western authorities, that a trial began against nine Italian high-ranking military officials accused of treason and for attacks against the institutions. It was proved during the process that many false testimonies, hiding of evidence and omission of information aimed at hiding the existence of this military operation on the night of the “accident”.