Last Sunday, a young couple from Turin, Italy, flew two different light aircraft. Both planes crashed during landing, but miraculously no one was killed or even seriously injured.
Journalists have not yet come to the conclusion whether this is a case of incredible luck with an equally incredible combination of circumstances, or whether it is something like a “destiny” in which something evil chased people and only by a miracle managed to escape.
30-year-old Stefano Pirilli and his 22-year-old girlfriend Antonietta Demasi decided to “have fun in the air” on Sunday and first fly to friends in the neighboring town of Asti for lunch and then fly to the sea. To do this, they hired two Tecnam P92 Echo Super light aircraft.
These small planes carry only one pilot and one passenger, so Stefano hopped into one and his girlfriend into the other. They reached Asti safely. They had lunch with friends and then headed back to the coast to admire the sea.
When they returned to Turin in the evening, Stefano’s plane first fell into a meadow while he was trying to land, and then Antonietta’s plane also fell, only from a higher altitude.
Stefano was not injured at all, but Antonietta and the pilot of her plane were only slightly injured and taken to hospital. For Antonietta, this was the first flight in her life.
“It was Antonietta’s first flying experience and I am very sorry for what happened. The day started off so great and ended with us both crashing in different planes.
“We are fortunate that we were not killed and our thoughts are with the pilots who were injured. I just want my girlfriend and pilot to feel better, nothing else matters. Sunday was the perfect day to fly with blue skies, sunshine and not a single cloud, it was the perfect way to have fun in the air…” says Stefano.
The weather was indeed excellent during the day, but in the evening a fog descended on Turin. Therefore, the pilots decided to land earlier at nearby airports.
“We decided to try to land in Busano and I called Antonietta and told her, and the pilot of her plane then said he would land at an airport near San Giglio.
“As we drove towards the runway we were shrouded in fog and darkness and we knew there were power lines everywhere, but before we knew it we crashed to the ground and fell into the field.
“We were about 100 meters short of the runway, but I managed to get out of the wreckage and pull the pilot out,” Stefano said.
He then called 911 and his girlfriend, but she did not answer. And when firefighters arrived at Stefano’s plane, they told him they had just visited the site of another plane crash.
“I asked them if there was a man and a woman and they said yes, and then my blood froze and I realized it was Antonietta. They told me that the woman was taken to the hospital, but she was fine, while the pilot suffered more serious injuries.
“I went straight to their hospital and have been there ever since. I just hope that Antonietta and Paolo are released soon.”
Meanwhile, local civil aviation officials began investigating both plane crashes, trying to understand why two planes crashed in quick succession.
