Dashcam captures moment billionaire Dan Petrescu crashes plane, killing family

A terrified driver’s dashcam has inadvertently captured the moment a billionaire crashed his light plane into a building, killing himself and his entire family.

The horror moment a plane piloted by a Romanian billionaire crashed into a building has been caught on dramatic dashcam footage.

Dan Petrescu’s single engine aircraft came down in a suburb of Milan, killing all eight on board, including a baby boy who had been baptised earlier that day, The Sun reported.

The aircraft reportedly burst into flames 16 seconds before hitting the building.

But the reasons for the single engine plane plummeting from the sky soon after taking off from Milan Airport remain a mystery.

The video, posted by romaniatv.net, was taken by a vehicle travelling on a highway and showed the aircraft coming down in a near-vertical dive before a fireball erupted at the scene of the impact with the building, which had been undergoing renovations.

The moment the plane crashed. Picture: Supplied

Mr Petrescu, 68, was one of Romania’s richest men and had been travelling with his son Dan Stefan Petrescu, 30, and his 65-year-old wife Regina Petrescu.

Filippo Nascimbene, 33, his 34-year-old wife Claire Alexandrescou, their son Rafael, and her mother Miruna Anca Wanda Lozinschi, were all also killed in the tragedy.

Raphael was born in January 2020 and had his baptism on Sunday morning.

Italian-born Nascimbene and his wife, a Romanian-born French passport holder, were both business executives and friends with the Petrescu family.

After Raphael’s baptism, both families then went to the airport to head to the Italian island of Sardinia to see Mr Petrescu's 98-year-old mother at the family villa.

The Pilatus PC-12 single engine plane took off from the main runway at Linate airport at 1.04pm local time.

The plane was travelling at about 321km/h when it slammed into the building in a fireball, 11 minutes after takeoff.

It performed a right hand turn that would have taken it on its route to Olbia in Sardinia but instead of heading south, it went towards the suburb of San Donato.

Frantic air traffic controllers asked the billionaire, “Why did you deviate? To avoid turbulence?” as the aircraft veered off course.

“No,” is the only word that came in response from Mr Petrescu.

Witnesses said the plane burst into flames and made what investigators call a “vertical fall”, 16 seconds before it hit the ground.

Police and firefighters investigate the scene of the crash. Picture: Polizia di Stato/AFP

Also on the plane was Mr Petrescu’s son’s Canadian friend, 36-year-old Julien Brossard.

Mr Petrescu, who also held Germany nationality, headed a major construction firm and owned a string of hypermarkets and malls, Italian media have reported.

According to the Romanian newspaper Adevarul, Petrescu was worth 3 billion euros ($A4.7 billion).

Mrs Petrescu was also a dual-national and held a French passport, while her son had been working in Canada.

Witnesses have recalled the moment the plane plummeted out of the sky and smashed into the building.

“I saw the plane lose control. I saw it just as it crashed. I saw it dive,” a woman named Andrea said.

“The plane was low. And then there was a lot of smoke, flames in the sky. Pieces were flying. I was very scared.”

Emergency workers said several cars in a nearby parking lot were set ablaze, but apparently the vehicles were unoccupied at the time.

“The plane hit the building on the facade, with an extremely violent impact,” Milan firefighter Carlo Cardinali said.

“The pilot made a turn, so he noticed some anomaly.”

Speaking at the scene, Milan prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano, said, “There does not appear to have been an alarm launched from board.”

The plane’s black box has been recovered and prosecutors have opened an investigation.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission