June 27, 1980, an Italian DC 9 flying from Bologna to Palermo falls in the sea close to the Ustica island. 81 people die. The official version is ''structure failure'' of the airplane, but a number of clues lead the journalist Rocco Ferrante toward a different truth. Thanks to his perseverance against the invisible wall erected by air force officers, politicians, judges, secret agents, we come to know that, with all probability, the DC 9 has been mistakenly shot by a missile during a sort of air fight among U.S., French and Libyan top guns. A true story.—Stefano Cristiani <[email protected]>