A large metal cylinder about five meters long and with a diameter of one and a half meters was spotted on Saturday afternoon at sea, eight miles from the west head, between the islands of Lampione and Lampedusa. It was identified by the crew of the Motopeschereccio Andrea Doria, who immediately gave the alarm. A patrol boat of the Coast Guard intervened on the spot, which verified how a logo of the Israeli Space Administration were present on the wreck (Minhalat Hahalal, an institution that depends on the Ministry of Defense and which deals with the development of ballistic and satellite missiles) and a writing in Hebrew.
The checks carried out until late in the evening excluded the presence of traces of explosive or radioactive material. According to the first hypotheses, it could be the residue of a satellite or an additional tank of a plane. The area is under monitoring of the Lampedusa Coast Guard, pending decisions on recovery operations.
«The presence of any trace of explosive or radioactive material has been excluded. From the first technical checks, the object would seem to be attributable to an additional fuel tank for planes, and not to an active military device nor much less to a space missile ». The mayor of Lampedusa and Linosa, Filippo Mannino, says it regarding the floating metal object sighted yesterday near the Lampione Isolotto.
“I find very serious and completely irresponsible – says Mannino – the declarations published by the senator of the 5 Star Movement Dolores Bevilacqua who spoke publicly, without any official feedback, of” Israeli missile “and has hypothesized innitas with highly sensitive international scenarios”.