Ousseynou Sy, the driver who carried out the hijacking to protest migrant deaths at sea, claimed he acted after hearing “the voices of children dying in the Mediterranean”.
“I heard the voices of the children [drowned] in the sea who were telling me ‘do something spectacular for us without hurting the children’,” Sy told investigators.
The 47-year-old insisted that he did not want to hurt anyone.
Earlier media reports quoted Sy as saying he planned to use the school kids as human shields as he escaped to Africa.
“I wanted to get to the runway at [Milan’s] Linate airport using the children as human shields and from there head to Africa by plane,” Italian daily Corriere della Sera quoted Sy as telling investigators.
Sy’s lawyer, Davide Lacchini, said his client displayed “clear signs of [mental] imbalance” during questioning.
However, the preliminary investigations judge said Sy had not shown any signs of mental illness, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
Milan prosecutors on Friday ordered Sy to be detained as the investigation proceeds, in order to prevent him from reoffending.
He now faces having his Italian citizenship, obtained through marriage in 2004, revoked.
Meanwhile, Italy’s interior ministry has released a circular instructing police forces to check drivers’ licences more thoroughly.
Sent to police stations across Italy on Friday morning, the circular called for all legally required checks on professional drivers to be carried out, as well as stating that authorities were looking into the possibility of tightening the law.
Sy had been driving school buses for 15 years, despite having his licence suspended for drink-driving and receiving a conviction for sexually assaulting a minor.
His licence was suspended for six months and fined €680 after police caught him caught driving slightly over the legal blood alcohol limit in November 2007, but neither he nor the authorities informed his employer about the offence.
Sy reportedly hid his suspended licence from his employer by taking extended sick leave.
