Padua, Italy — On AMI Grumman HU16 Albatross 15-14 at Museo dell’Aria del Castello di San Pelagio where it had sat for over three decades. (Image Credit: Claudio Toselli)May 17, 2013 a Grumman HU-16 Albatross displayed by the Museo dell’Aria del Castello di San Pelagio (Air Museum of San Pelagio Castle) in Padua, Italy was wrecked and turned into a heap of aluminum scrap by the people who had bought it with the purpose of returning it to the skies. The wanton destruction shocked the aviation and warbird communities all across Italy, sparking a furor, with anger directed towards both the museum’s management and the perpetrators of the slaughter of an intact and historically significant aircraft.
 
While the circumstances surrounding the destruction were unclear at first and both parties pointed to the other in blame, with the help of some people with deep ties to the Italian historical aviation community we have managed to put all the pieces together. The resulting picture is both alarming and disappointing. Putting aside the gross incompetence of two historical aircraft organizations, whose mismanagement led to this disaster, two monuments were violated in this debacle. The first is the Albatross, an aircraft which was emblematic of an era, and whose unique qualities caused it to be looked at with affection and devotion by both the men who served on it and by many aviation enthusiasts.
 
In just a few minutes once proud craft is reduced to scraps. (Image Credit: Museo dell’Aria Castello di San Pelagio)“The Albatross of San Pelagio” was well known and admired by both the Italian aviation community and the citizens of the small Venetian town in which it resided and throughout the 30 years it was on display, the plane drew many visitors to the museum which possessed it. The other desecrated monument is the Castello di San Pelagio itself. On August 9th, 1918 this location saw a handful of men accomplish one of the most audacious feats of the First War War, when the pilots of the Squadriglia Serenissima took off from San Pelagio for what became famously known as the “Flight Over Vienna.” On that day at San Pelagio an important page of Italian aviation history was written while on May 17th 2013, at San Pelagio another page was maliciously destroyed.
 
Veteran Grumman Albatross Senselessly Destroyed in Italy