In The Times today.
Novice pilot’s Alpine crash-landing on Cima di Cece saves the day
A 22-year-old novice pilot successfully crash-landed a light aircraft on a mountain in the Dolomites, saving the lives of her two passengers.
Silvia De Bon said she had no time to think when the Piper PA-28 began to lose power near the Cima di Cece which, at 2,754 metres (9,035ft), is the tallest peak in the Lagorai mountain chain.
She pulled back on the control wheel and managed to bellyflop the plane on to a snow-covered slope near the top of the mountain, sustaining nothing more serious than cuts to her face and a headache that prompted hospital staff in Trento to keep her in overnight on Wednesday.
Her companions, her brother Mattia De Bon, 27, and his girlfriend, Giorgia Qualizza, 28, were unhurt. They were taken off the mountain by helicopter after finding shelter nearby and phoning for help. “We were passing just under the peak of Cima di Cece, but between the cold and the thin air the engine lost power,” De Bon said. “I was travelling at around 80km/h and I tried to get higher by pulling back the control wheel, but when the engine loses power at a certain speed you start to fall. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to crash’. Then I just tried to put the plane at the same angle as the slope.”
She said she had to choose immediately whether to pull away to the side of the mountain or crash just beneath the ridge at the top of the Val di Fiemme, realising that she would have clipped the rocks if she tried to turn.
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