Club officials including the manager, Ernő Egri Erbstein, a Hungarian refugee, and the head coach, Englishman Leslie Lievesley, also perished in the accident,[1] as well as the crew of the aircraft and three well-known Italian sports journalists: Renato Casalbore (founder of Tuttosport); Renato Tosatti (the Gazzetta del Popolo, father of Giorgio Tosatti), and Luigi Cavallero (La Stampa).

The task of identifying the bodies was entrusted to the former manager of the Italy national team, Vittorio Pozzo, who had called up most of Torino's players to the Azzurri.

On approach, the plane lined up with the runway at Aeritalia about 9 miles (14 km) away to the west, at 305 metres (1,001 ft) above sea level, with Pino at 290° off its nose.

One theory for the deviation is that due to the strong left crosswinds, the plane could have suffered a drift to starboard, which shifted from the axis of descent and lined up with the hill of Superga.

[2] At 17:03, the plane made a turn to the left, returned to level flight, and had aligned to prepare for landing when it crashed into the back of the embankment of the Basilica of Superga.

The pilot, who likely believed that the Superga hill was off to his right, would have seen it suddenly emerge directly in front of him (speed 180 kilometres per hour (110 mph), visibility 40 metres (130 ft)) and been unable to react.

[1] Remains of the aircraft, including a propeller, a tyre, scattered pieces of the fuselage, and the personal bags of Mazzola, Maroso, and Erbstein, are preserved in a museum in Grugliasco near Turin.

The Museo del Grande Torino e della Leggenda Granata, located in the prestigious Villa Claretta Assandri of Grugliasco, was opened on 4 May 2008, the anniversary of the tragedy.