Some years ago I was a corporate pilot for a kitchen furniture factory based in Trieste in Venezia Giulia province of northern Italy. Every second Tuesday we had a scheduled flight to Valence in the Rhone Valley in France. The company aircraft was a turbocharged PA23 Piper Aztec E. Because the aircraft was not pressurized, most of the flying was done at or above 20,000 ft over the Alps on oxygen. My policy was that all flights were to be operated on airways on IFR flight plans (instrument flight rules) in controlled airspace.

At Valence airport I studied the weather charts and terminal area forecasts for the return flight to Trieste. I then filed an IFR flight plan requesting FL240 (24,000 ft) via Montelimar, Nice, Genoa, Bologna, Chioggia, and Venice. The route filed did not take us over the Alps. The reason for requesting such a high altitude was to take advantage of strong westerly winds which significantly increased our speed over the ground. The other reason for flying high was because of a forecast line of thunderstorms over the Appenines which lay across our flight planned route.

Company managers including the president received a full oxygen briefing before their first flight with me. Afterwhich they were quite happy reading "La Corriere Della Sera" with oxygen masks on their faces. One of my greatest fears was that somebody would light up a cigarette while on oxygen. This happened to me once with another company. I had to switch off the oxygen, extinguish the cigarette, then switch the oxygen back on very quickly. The TUC or time of useful consciousness without oxygen at the altitudes we typically flew, was approximately one minute.

Approaching Ventimiglia, on the border with France, we were handed off to Milan Control who cleared us to Trieste via flight plan route to maintain FL240. Listening to other aircraft requesting higher levels to avoid bad weather, I soon became aware that there was a squall line of interconnected thunderstorm cells over the Appenine mountain ranges which run right down the middle of the Italian peninsular. This extreme weather pattern was caused by an occluded frontal system where two fronts had merged to form a squall line.

Just east of Genoa the squall line became visible and I requested a level change to FL280 (28,000 ft). This level was not available and we were cleared initially to FL260 (26,000 ft). Approaching the squall line we encountered moderate to severe turbulence. Alitalia and other airlines were requesting higher levels. There was no possibility of deviating around the storm cells, so my plan was to fly over the lowest tops at 28,000 ft. then head out over the Adriatic sea where there had been no significant weather reported.

While waiting for my final level change to 28,000 ft. the unspeakable happened! Both engines failed and the aircraft assumed a kamikaze attitude in the thin air. Piper doesn't have a procedure for this situation. You are on your own! The auxiliary electric fuel pumps had been on since climbing through 18,000 ft. and the fuel tanks were half full, so it couldn't have been a fuel feed problem. I knew it couldn't have been icing because we were still in clear very dry air with an outside air temperature of minus 40 degrees centigrade.

Meantime the altimeter was winding down at an alarming rate with thunderstorm clouds building under the aircraft. I set the transponder to the emergency 7700 code and made a mayday call. It was picked up by an Alitalia DC9 flying above me. The crew contacted Milan Control who gave me an alternative clearance which was relayed to me by Alitalia. Milan misunderstood my situation believing that I had suffered a single engine failure. I made it clear to the Alitalia crew that I had lost both engines and was, therefore, in no position to accept any clearance. I added that I was taking up a reciprocal heading to avoid the worst of the weather and that my intentions were to ditch in the Tirennian sea just south of La Spezia. The Italian navy had search and rescue facilities based in La Spezia.

Ditching in heavy seas was a daunting prospect and I did not like our chances of survival. However, there was no clear alternative. Once established on an approximate westerly heading I started playing with the engine mixture controls finally putting them into the cutoff position. This counter intuitive but I had to try everything at this stage. Very slowly I advanced the mixture controls and a miracle happened. As we were passing through 12,000 ft, both engines fired and I slowly advanced the throttles, set the mixture, and adjusted the propeller controls for an economy cruise setting. We had returned to the living!

I called Genoa radar and requested diversion to Genoa at 12,000 ft. Genoa approach cleared us to Camogli NDB (non-directional beacon) which is the initial approach fix for Genoa. They advised that the precision approach for runway 29 (an approximate westerly alignment) was inoperative and that I could expect an NDB approach. This is a non-precision approach which is difficult to fly particularly in marginal weather with a strong southerly wind. There were also terrain considerations. A mountain range averaging 3,000 ft ran parallel and slightly to the north of the 14 nautical mile approach course.
Approach control advised that the surface wind was now from the south at 25 knots gusting to 30 knots. This was a direct cross wind in excess of the maximum cross wind component limit for my aircraft.
Reaching the initial approach fix at Camogli, I was still in cloud flying by reference to instruments, so I took a 60 degree heading change to the left to avoid the risk of being blown into the mountains. At 1,500 ft I broke out of cloud over the sea, altered course to the right, then flew up the coast to the port area where I encountered momentary severe turbulence.

Now over the runway threshold and crabbing to the left with the left wing down into the wind, and using a assymetric power, I finally managed to set it down about 3,000 feet down the runway. With a great feeling of relief I turned off the runway to taxy to the ramp. The only aircraft there were a British United Bac-111 and a Lufthansa 737. Alitalia had a 19 knot crosswind limitation in their insurance policy for the DC9 and had diverted to Milan Linate where the runway alignment is north south.

The company president asked me to buy a couple of airline tickets to Trieste via Milan. I replied "Dottore, do you see any other aircraft here? There's a reason for that! What I will do, after I've had a double scotch, is to book a couple of rooms at the Grand Hotel in Santa Margarita and rent a car. We'll try it again tomorrow!" He couldn't argue with that and quickly resigned to spending a night on the Riviera.

Statistically, the incident described above is extremely unlikely to happen. It does, however, illustrate the importance of being able to think laterally.