Half an hour to die. The sequence of what happened a week ago in Natisone bedtransformed by the current into one trap for three guys of Romanian origin, is reconstructed in all frames by the magistrates of the Udine Prosecutor’s Office, coordinated by Massimo Liaand by the carabinieri of the provincial command, directed by the colonel Orazio Ianniello. They are committed to answering the question that images of the tragedy continue to raise on television and online: Patrizia Cormos (21 years), Bianca Doros (23 years old) e Cristian Molnar (25 years) could they have been saved?
Investigators are collecting testimonies, film footage and documents, to line up the sequence of events, with particular attention to the times and methods of rescue. On Tuesday 11 June, for example, they will come the two municipal workers were questioned who tried in vain to bring help from the shore, but without ropes they couldn’t do anything other than exchange a few words with the three terrified and now at the mercy of the water.
Hours 1.25pmit’s sunny. Massimo Macorig, driver of the municipal school bus, is completing his service. He passes over the Roman bridge and sees Patrizia, Bianca and Cristian on the “Premariacco Beach”, with the pebble beach. It’s sunny. They entered without difficulty via a path, where bathing is prohibited, not transit.
1.29pm, Patrizia’s first call. At 1.29pm and 57 seconds the first call (in total there will be four) goes from Patrizia’s mobile phone to single number for emergencies. He explains the situation, says that the current is strongthere are three of them and they don’t know how to get out of the river. A few moments later there is a second call, but no answer. You have to understand why it wasn’t successful, but everything is recorded in the printouts, including the voices of those who ask and those who have to coordinate the rescue.
1.35pm, the driver’s alarm. Once the service is finished, the school bus driver returns along the same road and notices the three young people. He understands that I’m in trouble. So he also calls the Single Number, which however has already been activated. They will be many more calls from worried witnesses for what they were seeing from the bridge.
1.36pm, the third phone call. At 1.36pm the third call from Patrizia, while the water level rises further. The flow rate of the Natisone was 8.5 cubic meters per second at 9am on the morning of May 31st, while at 2pm it will reach 240 meters per second. The boys are terrified, while they moved to the highest part of the islet which is getting smaller. They were unable to cross the arm of the river on the right, i.e. on the side from where they arrived. To the left there is no escapebecause the course of the Natisone flows there, with all its unpredictable strength.
Cristian also tried to do it, but then he stopped and went back. The three receive reassurances on help is about to arrive. Initially, the firefighters of Udine were activated and moved by land, then their colleagues from Venice, who were equipped with a helicopter with winch for interventions from above. In the third stage, the helicopter rescue takes off with Alpine Rescue personnel.
1.45pmthe firefighters arrive. “Between 1.45pm and 1.50pm the firefighters arrive from the ground, explains the mayor Michele De Sabata. They are the ones from the Roman bridge they move the ladder headed towards the river.” The attempt, however, fails, a rope is thrown, which it is not grasped. “To carry out interventions of this type you also need reasoning skills, he explains Renato Chittaro, regional coordinator of the firefighters belonging to the FP CGI. For example, let’s think about question of the ladder truck, which must arrive from Udine to Premariacco. They want us 15 minutesyou have to position it, it has development limits, how many people can you load on the basket? You have to decide everything in just a few seconds.”
A policeman fire throws itself into water. Meanwhile, another firefighter makes an extreme attempt. He tells it Giorgio Basile, commander of the Udine fire brigade: “A colleague went straight into the water in an attempt to rescue someone. It’s about a man particularly expert and physically prepared. He was good, not only because of the action, but also because at a certain point he had clarity to understand that we couldn’t go any further. In fact, there is one for us too red line not to be crossedIndeed, it is often a ‘red band’”. The strength of the current is such that the attempt to swim does not allow him to come closer. It’s just that policeman, secured to a rope held by other firefighters, shouting at the three boys to hold each other tightly in an embrace, to try to keep up with the current,
They even try two municipal workers. From the shore, two workers who work on temporary contracts to clean the banks on behalf of the Municipality also attempted the impossible. One has yellow trousers, the second orange. They realized what was happening when the islet was still there. They got closer to the water, they probably have exchanged a few words with the boysbut they couldn’t do anything, also because They didn’t have a rope to throw to the unfortunate. The police will question them next week.
1.48pm. The three friends are now desperate. They have passed 20 minutes since they called for help. It’s the last call from their cell phone, they are at the end, they no longer have any way out. The iPhone will be recovered, still turned on inside her handbag, stuck between the rocks near the embankment. The hectic traffic in the last half hour of Patrizia’s life will be analyzed (who with her friend Bianca di lei has already been taken to Romania for her funeral). “To search the cell phone we will not appoint experts – explained the prosecutor Massimo Lia – but we have relied on our computer laboratory”. We are looking for photographs and any videos shot when the three friends realized that the situation was worsening.
2pm, the tragedy occurred. Many videos and photographs tell the story live death. There is the image of the boys, unaware, on the islet. The one where they try to figure out if they can jump on the bank, when the current is swelling. The one showing the firemen’s ladder truck protests from the Roman bridge. And there is the photo of the two workers on the shore. Then that of the fireman who swims desperately, until he gives up. Finally, the symbolic image of this tragedy, i three boys hugging each othera few moments before being torn away by the current.
A minute later the helicopter arrives. “I wasn’t there, but my fellow citizens told me that shortly after 2pm the three boys were taken away from the river. And that a minute later the helicopter appeared in the sky” says the mayor De Sabata, who hasn’t left Natisone for a week, in the hope that they will also recover Cristian’s body. “First let’s take him home, then I will make a proposal to remember that hug, it will be a choice of the citizens, not of the mayor”. A statueso as not to forget the pain and devastating power of nature, which can make men and women small and defenseless.
