An Italian paraplegic is aiming to show Maltese aviation lovers that people with disabilities can still reach for the sky at the Malta International Airshow next month.
Alessandro Paleri was rendered paraplegic in 1987 at the age of 15 after he dived into a shallow swimming pool. But despite being unable to use his legs, Mr Paleri is a founding member of We Fly – the only microlight display team composed of disabled pilots in the world – which will be appearing at next month’s air show in Luqa.
“We want to show everybody that they are capable of more than they think. Both able bodied and non-able bodied can see us fly and realise it is difficult but not impossible,” he said.
Mr Paleri started learning to fly in 1999 while he was studying aerospace engineering, but the idea of We Fly was not born until the summer of 2007, when Mr Paleri and disabled pilot friends Fulvio Gamba and Marco Cherubini were training intensively for a few weeks.
Mr Paleri and his friend Fulvio Gamba had previously performed together at air shows and aviation events at the request of Baroni Rotti – the Italian Federation of Disabled Pilots – to demonstrate the possibilities of flying for disabled people.
Part of their training that summer was formation flying and they were so pleased with their progress they decided, together with instructor Erich Kustatscher, that they would form a four-man team with its own identity separate from Baroni Rotti.
Sponsorship followed and by April 2008 they had developed a new display routine aided by a new smoke system.
But tragedy struck a few months later when Mr Gamba died after his plane suffered a catastrophic power failure during take-off.
We Fly now perform with three planes instead of four, with each plane displaying a number 2 – Mr Gamba’s We Fly number – on its tail as a tribute.
“It’s to let people know that in our minds he still flies with us,” Mr Paleri said.
Of the remaining members, left wingman Mr Cherubini has been flying since 2003 and is also paraplegic, while right wingman and team instructor Mr Kustatscher is able-bodied.
They are looking for another disabled pilot to join them, but Mr Paleri explained the search is difficult because there are only around 30 disabled pilots in Italy and We Fly members own their planes, so a new member would have to do the same.
The team has only recently begun to perform at air shows outside Italy, their most recent appearance abroad being at the prestigious Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in England last month.
Mr Paleri thinks that the disabled often suffer from thinking that they don’t have the same opportunities in life as other people, and he hopes that the example of We Fly might demonstrate that life still holds many possibilities for them.
“People with disabilities often think they have fewer roads to travel in their lives, or that no roads are open to them at all. They can see many roads but they think they cannot use them. We hope to show them they can travel further than they imagine.”
Malta Aviation Society president Joe Ciliberti said it will cost €10,000 to bring We Fly to Malta for the air show. A total of €3,000 has already been raised and organisers would welcome further donations.