The eldest was not yet sixty years old, the youngest was just of age. The Italian victims of the plane crash that occurred on Saturday 1st August in Peru, where a small Cessna crashed to the ground while flew over the UNESCO site of Nazca. These are two families. The first is that of Paolo Gianturco, 59 years old, his wife Cristina Maria Bianco, 57, and their children Pietro and Matteo, 18 and 24 years old. The other family involved is from Seregno: Elena Sala, 58 years old, Massimo Angelucci, also 58, and her son Lorenzo Angelucci, 24. The names were released shortly after the tragedy by the Peruvian press and only on the morning of August 2 did confirmation arrive from the Farnesina.
The victims of the accident are 13 in total. The German tourists Andreas Hofmann (78 years old) and Gertrud Maria Hofmann (77 years old), the Spaniards Yerro Alfredo Aviles Munoz (52 years old) and Ana Isabel Sanchez Munoz (52 years old), the pilot Americo Salazar and the deputy Irenka Del Carpio Guanilo also lost their lives.
🚨 #ATENCIÓN | The National Police, together with the Public Ministry and Legal Medicine staff, is located in the Pueblo Viejo area, Nasca province, Ica region, to carry out the diligence of the case in the area of ​​an aircraft flying over the Nasca lines and which began on 13… pic.twitter.com/VP71SW8ZUV
— RPP Noticias (@RPPNoticias) August 2, 2026
The managers, the entrepreneur and the children: who are the dead Italians
As mentioned, those who lost their lives were Paolo Gianturco, his wife Cristina Maria Bianco, their sons Pietro and Matteo and a family of their friends: Elena Sala with her husband Massimo Angelucci and their son Lorenzo Angelucci.
Paolo Gianturco was a partner of Deloitte (business services giant), he collaborated with Bocconi University and the Polytechnic of Milan. His wife was CEO and co-founder of Aegis human consulting group, a company active in the search and selection of specialized personnel and HR consultancy, which she has led since its foundation in 2002. Since 2024 Aegis human consulting group has been part of Andersen Consulting.
“It is an immense tragedy – the CEO of Deloitte Fabio Pompei told ANSA – which shocks our entire professional community and our large family. Paolo was a great innovator and, above all, a person who was able to inspire and accompany many colleagues, even very young ones, with his vision, his generosity and his humanity”.
Gianturco was a professional with approximately thirty years of consolidated experience in the sector of management and strategic consultancy for financial institutions. Among the roles held is that of Financial Services Industry & FS Tech Leader of Deloitte Central Mediterranean. “Paolo – declared the CEO of Deloitte Consulting Alessandro Mercuri – was a pioneer of innovation applied to financial services. An extraordinary consultant appreciated by all his clients and a point of reference for dozens of young people. With his wife, an extremely brilliant woman with a contagious humour, and his children they offered a place of welcome to all those who knew them. In recent hours I have received numerous testimonies of the mark that Paolo leaves. I am losing a colleague but above all a friend who leaves us an example that we all want to follow”.
Angelucci was an entrepreneur in the mechanical sector, his company was Ima Tecno in Lissone. His son Lorenzo had just graduated in engineering. Laura Borella, mayor of Lissone, remembers Massimo Angelucci as “a well-known and esteemed entrepreneur, who with his work contributed to the growth of the productive fabric of our city. Lorenzo, who had recently completed his university studies, was a young man full of life and plans for the future. On behalf of the municipal administration and the entire community of Lissone I express our most sincere condolences and our closeness to his family and to all the people who are experiencing this immense pain”.
The bodies of the victims have been transferred to the Ica morgue, where autopsies will be conducted, local media reported. The consuls of Italy, Spain and Germany went to Nazca, where the Peruvian authorities are engaged in investigations to ascertain the causes of the crash.
The accident
The accident occurred while the Cessna Grand Caravan of the Peruvian company Aerodiana was preparing to fly over the Nazca Lines, an archaeological site recognized by UNESCO. Nobody survived. The plane suddenly lost altitude for reasons yet to be determined and crashed into agricultural land near the Maria Reiche airport. Upon impact with the ground it caught fire.
Seven Italians die in a plane crash in Peru
The group’s excursion included flying over the UNESCO site, to admire the lines drawn over 2 thousand years ago in the desert, which make up geometric figures and animals, which can only be fully appreciated from above. The meaning of the lines remains an enigma: some researchers consider them an astronomical observatory, while others interpret them as a calendar.
“Deep condolences for the tragic plane crash that occurred in Peru, in which seven Italian citizens also lost their lives. I extend to their loved ones, on behalf of the Italian Government and my own, my most sincere sympathy in this moment of immense pain”, writes Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in X.