It was supposed to the most joyous of occasions _ the celebration of 25 years of marriage, the holding together of a family over time. But the celebration turned to disaster Saturday when a helicopter and a small plane collided in midair over the Hudson River in the United States, destroying two Italian families and leaving the wife of 25 years without her husband and one of her sons. The collision killed five Italian tourists aboard the helicopter, including 51-year-old Michele Norelli, the husband, and his 16-year-old son Filippo Norelli. Also killed were 49-year-old Fabio Gallazzi; his wife, 44-year-old Tiziana Pedroni; and their son, 15-year-old Giacomo Gallazzi. Nine people, including the five Italians, were killed in Saturday's crash. «The trip was a gift from one of Norelli's sisters to mark the 25th anniversary of his marriage,» Giovanni Leporati, a friend of the Norelli family, told The Associated Press on Sunday. «The anniversary already happened but they took advantage of the August holidays and went,» he said. Norelli's wife, Silvia Rigamonti, did not go on the aerial tour of the Hudson because she was scared of the helicopter. The couple's other son, Davide, stayed behind in Italy, planning to travel to New York with his girlfriend soon, Leporati said. «He is very upset, obviously,» Leporati said. «A crash like that, it is a real tragedy.» The family home is in Trebbo di Reno, a small village a few kilometers from Bologna in northern Italy. The couple ran a picture framing business in the area. The Gallazzi family lived in the area, too. The two teenage sons were friends, according to Italy's RAI state TV and the ANSA news agency. Their fathers were amateur cyclists, and on Sundays they would bike together through the hills around Bologna, the reports said. The Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, sent his condolences and said in a statement that Italy was offering assistance to the victims' families. The Italian deputy-consul in New York, Maurizio Antonini, told Sky Italia that some of the relatives would return to Italy later Sunday. He said there was still no certain identification of the bodies that have been recovered so far, and that it would likely take a few days, and possibly scientific tests.
