Rome, February 12 - A Palermo appeals court on Tuesday upheld a January 2016 ruling that the defence and transport should pay 12 million euros in damages to some of the relatives of the 81 victims of the 1980 Ustica air disaster. The court found that the plane was downed by a missile. Damages from cover-ups were declared to have timed out. On 27 June 1980, a Bologna-Palermo flight by the now-defunct Itavia airline crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea between the islands of Ponza and Ustica, killing all 81 people on board. Known in Italy as the Ustica Massacre ("Strage di Ustica"), the disaster led to numerous investigations, legal actions and accusations, and continues to be a source of controversy, including claims of conspiracy.