Lieutenant Colonel Flavio Favari, the only survivor from the medical team aboard the military helicopter that crashed in Bosnia, said he considers it a miracle that he is still alive. Recovering in a hospital in Tuzla, Favari recalled only a violent impact that lasted a matter of seconds.

Favari, a medical officer and the third member of the Italian Red Cross Medevac team, thanked those who supported him after the accident. He specifically expressed his gratitude to representatives of the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina who visited him, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto and Italian Red Cross president Rosario Valastro.

Among the other injured is Pietro Bersaglia, from Ischia di Castro in the province of Viterbo. His sister, Elisa, thanked the public for its support in a message shared on social media. She described the family’s survival as another immense source of hope, expressed sympathy for the families of the four victims and wished the other injured a speedy recovery.

Investigators are continuing to reconstruct the final moments of the flight and determine what caused the crash. The remains of the four victims are scheduled to return to Italy aboard a military aircraft landing at Rome’s Ciampino airport. The dead are sergeants Simone Ruggia and Claudio Marchesi, along with Lieutenant Franco Adriano Zecchillo and Sergeant Laura Procacci of the Italian Red Cross Military Corps.

Procacci has also been remembered in a video shared by influencer Daniel Sorza, known for photographing people in uniform. The video showed Sorza placing at a memorial in Rome a printed portrait of Procacci that he had taken during a parade on May 30, 2026. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shared the video on social media and thanked Sorza for his work and for the stories told through his images.

The Italian Red Cross has established a memorial space at the chapel of the Luigi Pierantoni barracks in Rome for Zecchillo and Procacci. The site is open to the public for prayer and tribute, as well as to show support for the victims’ families, their colleagues and the wider Italian Red Cross community.

Sources: La Repubblica.