With the arrival of a formation of 10 Tornado IDS of the 156° Gruppo in Ghedi on Jul. 1, the relocation that was described in a previous post on this site (http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/italian-tornados-relocation/) officially took place. The 156° joined the 102° OCU and the 154° Gruppo within the 6° Stormo, that for the moment will keep the status of “Stormo” not becoming an “Aerobrigata” (a flight unit with more than 2 Sqns). According to the information released by the Aeronautica Militare on its official website, the Operational Conversion Unit will keep its training role, even if it was speculated it could merge with the 154° Gruppo. Noteworthy, according to the same news release, the TASMO role, historically assigned to the 156° Gruppo (whose task was also the maritime support because of its strategic position in Southern Italy), should be relieved by the 154° Gruppo, while the “Recce” role, could be taken on charge by the 156°. It would be very strange, since TASMO and Reconnaissance are different missions which require years of specific training and can’t be swapped quickly. In my opinion, the things will remain as they are now and both Sqns will keep their current specialities.
The “Tonkas” of the 156° Gruppo arrived in their new base from Gioia del Colle with the escort of 2 F-2000 Typhoon of the 12° Gruppo (the other unit of the Gioia-based 36° Stormo) and were welcomed by a flight of 2 Tornado of the 6° Stormo. With 3 Sqns on a MOB (Main Operating Base) and a flight line of around 30 aircraft, Ghedi represents one of the most interesting and active airbases in Italy. However, for the moment at least, it will not be the only Tornado base in Italy since the ECRs of the 155° Gruppo will remain in Piacenza, home of the 50° Stormo (even if they were recently compelled to move to Cameri because of the works interesting their homebase).

The following pictures, courtesy of the Italian Air Force Press Office, shows the 10 ship formation of the 156° Gruppo flying to Ghedi on Jul 1 2008.

In the meanwhile, the Italian Ministry of Defense, visiting the Italian contingent in Herat and Kabul confirmed the possible deployement of the Tonkas in Afghanistan. As La Russa explained, currently, the German and British detachments provide the reconnaissance and they would like Italy to share the effort in the “recce” mission. According to the MOD such a request is reasonable even if the final decision to deploy the aircraft must be taken by the whole Italian Government and has to take into account also the economic effort required by a temporary deployment overseas. As reported by the ANSA news agency, a 3 months deployment of a cell of 4 Tornados could cost up to 15 milion Euro.

A white Boeing 767 landed on Jul 1 at Pratica di Mare airport coming from McConnell AFB, Wichita, Kansas. The aircraft, serialled N626TW, according to FlightAware (http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N606TW) flew the following route:
GOSSL MCI J26 IRK J26 JOT J146 GIJ J554 CRL J586 YXU J595 PLB YSC PATTA J509 YQY J575 YYT NOVEP 4800N 05000W 4700N 04000W 4600N 03000W 4400N 02000W BANAL UZ28 DIRMA UM191 DIPOL UH100 CJN UN733 MJV UN851 MHN UM603 ALG UL5 VALMA, with an ETD on Jun 30 at 04:10PM CDT an ETA on Jul 1 at 07:27AM GMT and a cruising speed of 464 Kts at at FL350.
The aircraft is a B767-200 CTA (Commercial Trainer Aircraft) of the Boeing company and it will be used in the next months for training purposes by the Aeronautica Militare in anticipation of the delivery of the first KC-767 tanker (for more details and some pictures: http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/Sitoam/default.asp?idente=1398&idNot=21789&idSez=2&idArg=). After qualifying the pilots of the 8° Gruppo, 14° Stormo, on the B767 aircraft type, the CTA will be used to train the Italian crews in the trasport task until the KC-767A is delivered: the ItAF will in fact use the aircraft to support the Italian contingents operating in “out of area” scenarios. Therefore, the CTA will permit Italy, that signed the contract for 4 KC-767 in 2002 thus being the launch customer of the tanker (the other only customer so far is Japan, that received the first two KC-767J in Feb. and Mar. 2008), to make up for some of the time lost because of the delayed delivery of the first aircraft (initially expected in 2005), a delay that has already had a bad impact on the ItAF AAR capabilities since the fleet of predecessor B707 has been gradually withdrawn from use (see also: http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/italian-b707-last-operative-flight/). As soon as the first KC-767A will be officially delivered to the ItAF in 2009, the Italian crews will have achieved an initial generic experience with the B767 and will be able to immidiately start the training in the Air-to-Air Refueling (AAR) role. In fact, the CTA that is currently operating with the 14 Stormo is not equipped with any refueling equipment and can’t be employed in such a kind of training. According to the information provided by the ItAF website, 3 crews have already completed the simulator training phase at the Boeing facilities in Seattle; at the end of the year there will be 7 while another 5 will start transition in 2009. Even if based on a different version (the 767-200ER instead of the 767-200LRF Long Range Freighter) the KC-767A for the ItAF is much similar to the aircraft offered to the USAF for the KC-X competition to replace the old fleet of KC-135 tankers. As everybody knows (and as I discovered by reading the first page of The New York Times in NYC on Saturday March 1st), on Feb. 29 2008 the $40 billion deal (possibly growing to $100 billion) was awarded to the Northrop Grumman/EADS’s KC-30, based on the much younger Airbus A330-200. Upholding the protest submitted by the Boeing in the following days, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended the USAF to reopen discussions with the offerors and evaluation of the proposals since it had not properly evaluated the Boeing and Northrop Grumman bids. The decision of the GAO was a good news for the ItAF: should the KC-767 be the new USAF tanker, the Aeronautica Militare would benefit of operating the same kind of aircraft as the Air Force (that would require 179 planes) in both logistical and operative fields.

The following pictures, courtesy of the Italian Air Force Press Office, show the N606TW arriving in Pratica di Mare on Jul. 1.

The following picture shows the first Boeing KC-767 destined for the Italian Air Force extending its aerial refueling boom and transferring fuel to a B-52 for the first time in flight on Mar 2007. During that refueling mission, the tanker made 73 contacts with the B-52 and transferred nearly 10,000 pounds of fuel.

Have you ever wondered what’s the internal set up of the Italian Air Force One? Have you ever guessed if the seat of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is comfortable?
On Apr 17, I had the opportunity to sit on that important (and comfortable) chair since I flew in one of the 3 A319CJ of the 31° Stormo, the unit within the Aeronautica Militare undertaking VIP transportation missions (among the important persons carried by the aircraft of the 31 Stormo there’s also Pope Benedict XVI, who often use the SH-3D of the 93° Gruppo). The opportunity was provided by a Media Flight organized by the Italian Air Force Press Office to bring journlists and photographers to Decimomannu to attend the Media Day of the Exercise Spring Flag (for more info and pictures search “Spring Flag” in this site using the search field in the upper right hand column). Along with other media representatives, I boarded the aircraft serialled MM62174 (the other two A319CJ of the ItAF are the MM62209 and MM62243) of the 306° Gruppo, parked in the 31° Stormo apron at Ciampino airport, Rome, and made two flights (to and from Deci) lasting slightly less than 1 hour each.
Immediately after boarding through the front stairs I gave a quick look at the “glass” cockpit with retractable HUD (Head Up Display), MFDs (Multi-Function Displays) and all the other features of a commercial A319, IFF and radio equipment aside. The standard crew is composed by 2 pilots (”I-2174″ flight had Gen. Parma, former Cdr of the 31° Stormo and current Cdr of the Comando delle Forze per la Mobilità e il Supporto, on the left seat in the cockpit), 2 flight engineers, 2 stewards.
I was given the possibility to take a seat in the VIP area, a sort of internal “business class” made of 8 seats. These are large and ergonomic and they are located in front of desks equipped with telephones and have large LCDs on the opposite wall. Next to the “business class”, there’s also a sort of President’ Suite with two large seats (each with an embedded telephone, modem/fax), LCDs, a sofa and a private restroom; everything inside this private area is lacquered. This is where a strategic meeting between the Prime Minister and its closer co-workers would take place. The “economic class” is divided from the business class by means of a corridor that runs inside the fuselage more or less above the root of the right wing and has plenty of windows on the starboard engine. The seats in the back are obviously smaller and there are 8 rows with 5 seat each (2 on the left and 3 on the right of the corridor). Even if the aircraft is used for State Flights, carrying the most important representatives of the Italian Government, the A319CJ, whose Mission Design Series is VC-319A, can be also used as an Air Ambulance to perform Hospital flights, MEDEVAC and CASEVAC. In fact, with its fleet of A319, Falcon 50 (VC-50A) and Falcon 900EX (VC-900A) and EASY (VC-900B), the 31° Stormo provides also short, medium and long range Emergency transportation with at least one aircraft ready for departure H24 365 days per year (recently the aircraft of the Stormo have rescued Italian citizens in Australia, USA and Argentina). Just to have an idea of the effort of the wing in its two main tasks, let’s have a look at figures of the last year: in 2007, the VC-319A, flew 1.364 sorties (2.483 flight hours); the VC-50A, 1311 sorties (1083 fh); the VC-900A, 2136 sorties (1510 fh); the VC-900B 1484 sorties (957 fh) and the SH-3D (VH-3D), 250 sorties (247 fh).

Boarding the A319CJ of the 306° Gruppo:

My seat (on the left, next to the window):

Looking to my left:

Looking to my right:

The display in front of my seat showing the flight progressing to destination:

The right wing as seen from the corridor’s window:

The corridor window and the corridor between “business” and “economy”:

The Presidential Suite:

Inside the cockpit:

Rome, as seen from the aircraft performing the ILS procedure in Ciampino:

I wish to thank Col. Amedeo Magnani of the Italian Air Force Press Office for providing the opportunity to fly with the A319CJ.

On June 20, a RAF C-130 flying from Lyneham to Cyprus, was intercepted by a flight of 2 F-16s of the 37° Stormo. The British aircraft had lost the radio contact with the Italian Air Traffic Control and, consequently, the COFA (Comando Operativo delle Forze Aeree)/CAOC 5 at Poggio Renatico ordered the “scramble” of the Southern QRA based in Trapani to intercept the aircraft. The two fighters, departed at 13.11L, reached the British Hercules over Rosarno (Reggio Calabria), Southern Italy, visually identified and escorted it until 13.34L when they were cleared to RTB (Return To Base). In the meanwhile, the C-130 had been able to established again a positive radio contact with the ATC and was cleared to destination via FPL (Flight Plan) route.
It was the 6th scramble of the 2008, a routine Air Defense mission that from the beginning of the year is flown again by two aircraft on H24 alert (for a certain period, the Air Defense duties involved only a single fighter for the Northern QRA and another one for the Southern one).
Unlike it happened some years ago (in the F-104 era during the Cold War), when there were many bases sharing the QRA duties in Northern and Southern Italy (at the end of the ’80s they were: Istrana, Cameri, Rimini, Grosseto, Grazzanise, Gioia del Colle, Trapani and Sigonella, where a cell was deployed on rotation) the current Italian Air Defense set up foresees two QRA (Norther and Southern), each made of a flight of 2 fighters ready for departure in 15 minutes: 2 fighters in either Grosseto (9° Gruppo, equipped with the F-2000 Typhoon) or Cervia (23° Gruppo, equipped with the F-16ADF); and 2 aircraft in Trapani (where two Squadrons share the alert shifts, the 10° and 18° Gruppo). It is still unclear how the Air Defense configuration will change in the 2009-2010 period, when the ItaF will leave Cervia and Trapani with the disbandment of both the 23° and 18° Gruppo and the relocation of the 10° Gruppo to Gioia del Colle. According to the current plans, there will only be two Eurofighter MOBs (Main Operating Bases) fulfilling the Air Defense duties with the Typhoon: Grosseto (9° Gruppo and 20 OCU) and Gioia del Colle (12° and 10° Gruppo).

The following aircraft were noted during the Spotter Day held in Cervia on June 20, to watch the arrivals of the Italian and foreign squadrons invited by the 23° Gruppo to celebrate its 90th Anniversary.
Here’s the log of the activity:

AT-21 Alpha Jet BAF but flown by EC2/8 of the FAF crews
AT-23 Alpha Jet BAF but flown by EC2/8 of the FAF crews
135 Red L-39 2 Sqn HuAF
C.14-38 14-20 Mir F.1 Esc 141 SpAF
C.14-10 14-05 Mir F.1 Esc 141 SpAF
E-180 F-16A-MLU Esk 727
ET-199 F-16B-MLU Esk 727
XX285 Hawk 100 Sqn RAF Special markings 90th Anniversary
XX284/CA Hawk 100 Sqn RAF
89-2047 F-16CG 510FS
89-2018 F-16CG 510FS
MM54514 “61-64″ MB.339A 213 Gr
MM7059 “50-47″ Tornado ECR 155 Gr
MM7078 “36-30″ Tornado 156 Gr
MM7080 “6-33″ Tornado 102 Gr Special Colour
MM6940 “5-30″ F-104ASA-M preserved
MM7169 “51-66″ AMX 132Gr
MM7239 F-16ADF 23 Gr
MM7251 F-16ADF 23 Gr Special Colour
MM7252 F-16ADF 23 Gr
MM7259 F-16ADF 23 Gr
MM7262 F-16ADF 23 Gr
MM7269 F-16B 18 Gr
MM7273 “36-02″ F-2000 12 Gr
MM61970 “5-55″ S208M 605SC
MM81343 “15-31″ HH-3F 83 CSAR

The highlights of the Spotter Day held on June 20 in Cervia airbase to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the 23° Gruppo were the F-16ADF MM7251 painted in a special colour scheme (since, most probably, it will be the first and only F-16 “Special Colour” in ItAF service) and the preserved F-104S (it is actually an ASA-M) MM6940/5-30, wearing the old codes and markings used by the 23° Gruppo when the Squadron and its parent unit (the 5° Stormo) were based in Rimini.
More pictures of the Spotter Day and the full log of the partecipating aircraft here.

Thanks to the BBC, on June 14 I’ve had the possibility to watch the footage of the flypast provided by the Royal Air Force to mark the Queen’s official birthday. The flypast involved 57 aircraft of 14 different types ranging from the WWII Spitfires, Hurricane and Lancaster, to the Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon who overflew the Buckingham Palace in large formations. Absolutely stunning in my opinion, the sight of 16 Tornado GR4, a formation composed most probably by all the airworthy “Tonkas” from RAF Marham. Noteworthy, among the 5 aircraft of the Battle of Britain Flight, there was also the only airworthy Lancaster bomber in the UK. The flypast comprised a C-130J flanked by two King Air 100, a 9 ships formation of Tornado F3s, a formation of 9 Typhoons, an E-3, a VC-10, a Nimrod and a C-17 flying along with two F3s each, and a Tristar flanked by a pair of HS125. According to the RAF website, the formation assembled over the North Sea and routed towards Buckingham Palace with the support of two Hawks from 100 Sqn and an A.109E that performed weather checks and acted as a camera ship. The formations flew over London at altitudes between 1.300 and 1.700 feet along a corridor 20 NM long that was flown in 4 minutes.

Watching the images of all those formations made me compare the RAF flypast to the once traditional Italian flypast provided by the Italian Air Force on June 2 until 2006. In the last two years, the only formation providing a flypast during National celebrations is the one made of 9 MB339 of the Frecce Tricolori: budget constraints don’t permit the ItAF and other Armed Forces to “waste” flight hours. Actually, even in the 2001 - 2006 period, the flypasts taking place in Italy were light years away from those that brought hundreds of aircraft and large formations of fighters above Rome: in the ’70s and ’80s, the flypast was one of the highlights of the military parade (that took place almost all years from 1948 to 1992, when it was suspended), and I have pictures of formations made by 18 F-104s and 18 G.91s or 36 F-104s overflying The Eternal City. Look at the following video (1:38) to have an idea of a flypast of 18 F-104s in 1972.

Eight years after it was abolished, in 2000, the parade with an interesting old-style flypast was planned, but something very “Italian” happened: after performing 3 rehearsals neitheir aircraft was cleared to perform the flypast on Sunday June 4, 2001. All those formation, it was later explained, would have rendered the flypast too military! Strange isn’t it? Especially if we consider that the whole parade is provided by all the Armed Forces (Navy, Army, Air Force, Carabinieri, Coast Guard, Police, Guardia Di Finanza etc). In 2000, 100 aircraft, spares comprised, from 8 airbases, were expected to fly over Rome. Even if it was never confirmed, it was decided to keep the aircraft on the ground since many citizens (and politicians) protested for the “show of force”, for the noise pollution, for the Widow Maker (the F-104) overflying the Nation’s Capital etc. As a consequence, only the Frecce Tricolori could attend the flypast and the following elements of the Aeronautica Militare were cancelled: 3 MB339 of the 61° Stormo (callsign “Veltro”); 3 SF-260 of the 70° Stormo (“Vespa”); 3 NH-500 of the 72° Stormo and 3 HH-3F of the 15° Stormo (“Eolo” and “Ettore”); 1 C-130 and 2 G-222 of the 46^ Brigata Aerea (“Vega”); 3 Atlantique of the 41° Stormo (“Vicky”); 3 Tornado IDS and 3 ADV of the 36° Stormo (“Vortex” and “Vulcan”), 3 AMX of the 51° Stormo (“Violet”); and 3 F-104 of the 5° Stormo (“Victor”). The fixed wing aircraft (whose c/s began with the letter “V”, for “Velivolo”, “Plane”) were expected to fly at 1.500 ft AGL, while helicopters (with c/s beginning with the letter “E”, as “Elicottero”, “Helicopter”) were expected to fly at 1.000 ft AGL.
In the following years the flypast took place but, as a compromise, only aircraft with two or more engines were authorized to overfly Rome and as a consequence, in 2001, only 48 aircraft (helicopters comprised), took part to the flypast. In 2002, the aircraft were 68 but, despite the single-engined aircraft were still banned (MB.339PAN of the Frecce Tricolori display team aside), nobody noticed that in spite of the 4 nozzles, the Italian Navy Harriers with a single engine were cleared to overfly the center of Rome. The 2003 edition saw only 54 aircraft belonging to all the Armed Forces and Corps performing the flypast; among them there was no AV8B+. Until 2005, when the last one was performed, the flypast had approximately the same shape with less than 30 aircraft and around 20 helicopters.

The following pictures (courtesy Troupe Azzurra, Aeronautica Militare) show the 2003 edition of the military parade.

In these days, two movements seems to interest the Italian Tornado fleet. The first one was announced many months ago and it is part of a project of rationalization of the ItAF resources, a plan that foresees to concentrate homogeneous fleets on the same bases. It deals with the movement of the 156 Gruppo aircraft, currently located in Gioia del Colle and belonging to the 36 Stormo, to Ghedi. The Tonkas wearing the Lynx badge will join the 154 Gruppo and 102 OCU of the 6 Stormo, thus creating a Tornado IDS MOB (Main Operating Base). Piacenza will remain the only other base hosting the Tonka, even if the type of aircraft equipping the 50 Stormo’s 155 Gruppo is the ECR version, used for SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) mission. By next July, all the 156 Gr aircraft and crews will return to Ghedi 42 years after they moved in the opposite direction in 1966, when the Squadron left the 6 Aerobrigata to be annexed to the 36 Stormo.
The other possible relocation was hypothesised by the Italian MOD Ignazio La Russa during the NATO Council meeting in Bruxelles on June 13. Even if nothing has been decided yet, the Ministry explained that the deployment of the Tornado could be evaluated if demanded by the other allies to relieve the 6 German Tornados used for reconnaissance in Southern Afghanistan. The GAF planes have been operating under NATO command from Apr 9 from Mazar-e-Sharif, a forward base in Northern Afghanistan. The aircraft are used for “recce” missions and equipped with high-tech cameras and provide hi-rez images providing additional security for both the ISAF troops and civilian population. This would be the same task of the Italian Tornados.
The 154 Gruppo has recently received its new Reccelite pod and has performed the first reconnaissance mission with the new equipment on Mar 13. The Rafael Reccelite is a Day/Night electro-optical pod able to provide real-time imagery collection. It is made of a stabilized turret, Solid-state on board recorder that provides image collections in all directions, from high, medium and low altitudes and can transmit to a ground station the collected data in real-time via data-link. The Reccelite was integrated with the Tornado with the cooperation of the Alenia Aeronautica and the Reparto Sperimentale Volo, at Pratica di Mare and can be used to provide imagery of suspected Taliban positions in Afghanistan.

The following picture (courtesy of the ItAF) shows the Reccelite pod underneath the fuselage of a Tornado.

Since reconnaissance is one of the duties of the 154 Gruppo, which flew recce missions also on the Balkans and in case of national calamities, this Squadron is most probably the one destined to operate in Afghanistan should the need arise. In 2006, the possible deployment of the 51 Stormo AMX Ghiblis to Afghanistan was speculated; Ministry La Russa clearly explained that the only option under evaluation these days doesn’t foresee the involvement of Ghibli.

When in Sep. 2004 I visited Gioia del Colle, the last Tornado F3s of the 12 Gruppo were flying the last missions as the Squadron was receiving its first MB.339CDs. The 12 Gr is currently flying the F-2000 Typhoon.

There’s a lot of interest about the fate of the MM6507 that was (apparently) being restored at Grazzanise (read also these posts http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/mm6507-update/ and http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/new-f-104-restoration-project-discovered/).
Someone initially pointed to the F-104 pole mounted in Istrana with code 51-21 as the MM6507 seen at Grazzanise, however, when I visited Grazzanise for the last time on Apr 26, I saw the aircraft among the others in the famous scrapyard next to the GEA hangar. The preserved grey 51-21 that was erected in the centre of Istrana (town), was identified by the IFS (International F-104 Society) as MM6552.
Here are a few pictures I took in Grazzanise on Apr 26. Among the others (on the right) you can notice the camouflaged tail of the MM6507 with the characteristic 22 Gruppo/51 Stormo bagdes.

In the aftermath of the accident involving the Italian Army NH90 crashing into the waters of Bracciano Lake, I was asked hundreds of questions. People who met me wanted to know what I had seen, others sent me an email, an SMS, other reached me on the telephone, many left a comment on this site. On June 2, some 9.000 unique visitors read the post on the NH90 accident with the image of the aircraft passing by the paddle boat before ditching and 15.600 have read the post since then. The question has always been the same: “what happened and why?”.
It is extremely difficult to answer. There’s an investigation in progress and it will provide the correct (and only answer). What I can say is what I saw and what I thought watching the aircraft performing its last maneuvers. They obviously represent my very personal ideas. So I think it is better to recall what I experienced and saw, because any other hyphotesis could not be confirmed until the final report will be released.

Here is my brief account:

“I was attending the show along with many friends. We stationed to the right of the Italian Air Force Museum near the gate of the Vigna di Valle base, some 3 meters from the water. The weather conditions were not perfect: the sky was overcasted, ground temperature was around 25° C and humidity was very high. At around 15.03 the Frecce Tricolori made the last passage and 5 minutes later the NH90, coming more or less from Anguillara, began its display in front of the public. We were amazed by the show provided by the helicopter, it looked to many of us much interesting, since the helicopter flew closer to the public than in a normal airshow.
At around 15.15 the NH90 made a turn in front of us, from our left to the right, accelerating.

The following Youtube video ends at that moment.

Seconds later the aircraft flying low level climbed to perform a fiesler. The apex of the maneuver looked low to me and, as the aircraft was diving, I realized that it was almost impossible it could recover before hitting the water.

This is a video (from Studio Aperto) from Youtube showing the helicopter hitting the surface of the lake

And this shows the accident from another point of view.

As soon as I saw the aircraft nearing the water I shot the 4 pictures in sequence (using my Canon EOS D10 with 80-400mm Sigma OS lens and 1.4x Sigma teleconverter, Tv mode, shutter priority, 1/640s, ISO 100 f5.6) that I published here.

I remember seeing the chopper, nose high in a desperate attempt to level off before the water and then seeing it almost exploding in myriad pieces.
I could not believe what I had just witnessed and I was shocked like all the other spectators“.

The accident immediately reminded me the Su-27 crash that occurred on Sept 9, 1990 at Salgareda, near Treviso, when the Lithuanian astronaut and test pilot Rimantas Antanas Stankevicius misestimated a loop meneuvre that he could not complete before crashing into the ground.

Here’s a documentary dealing with that accident with some footage.

I think the root cause of the NH90 crash could be the same. I obviously don’t know whether the helicopter experienced a failure during the display or not. I however had the feeling that the fiesler had a low apex. In order to have an idea of the expected altitude of that maneuver just have a look at the Youtube video of the NH90 display in Pratica di Mare, a week before the accident.

Around 4:23 minutes of the above video, you see the aircraft starting the same maneuver. A few seconds later it seems to reach a higher altitude than that reached during the display above Bracciano Lake.
Perhaps, during the tragic display, the NH90 began the maneuver at a lower altitude (or speed) and was not able to complete it.