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Deadly Collision Claims 67 Lives in U.S. Air Disaster | At Least 30 Dead and Many Injured in Stampede at Maha Kumbh Mela in India | Cambodia's Future Leaders Celebrated as Prime Minister Hun Manet Speaks at Asia-Europe University Graduation | The National Bank of Cambodia and Central Bank of Madagascar seal a partnership to enhance bilateral economic cooperation. | Minister of Health Delivers Lecture on Leadership and Innovation on "Methods of Critical Thinking – Part 2" | BREAKING: Takeo Provincial Court President Dismissed for Premature Release of Murder Convict | BREAKING: Samdech Hun Sen Announces Absence from Senate Plenary Session After Positive COVID-19 Test |

World-First for Daring Pilot

  • Posted Sep 6, 2021 13:35 by Andrew Barnes-Roberts
  • 941
  Aa |   aA

INTERNATIONAL: For the first time in aviation history, a pilot has flown through not just one road tunnel, but two. The stunt had been in the planning for months, but until Dario Costa actually landed, no-one knew if he was actually going to pull it off.

The Zivko Edge 540 racing aircraft was specially modified for the stunt. Dario Costa took off from one of the two tunnels on his flight path, flying barely a metre off the ground for 360 metres. He then exited that tunnel into heavy cross-winds, but managed to nail his entry into the second tunnel that was over a kilometre long.

He says he was very emotional by the time he landed, “Just, you know, it's more than one year that we're working on this project and then you get it done. Until it is not done, you don't know. You don't know what to expect. You don't know if it's going to go good. I have never flown in a tunnel in my life. Nobody (has) ever done (it). So, there was a big question mark in my head, if everything would have been like we expected, or there would have been something to improvise, fixing, improvising. So yeah, it was a big relief of course. But big, big happiness. That was the biggest emotion of the two."

Safely through that second tunnel, knowing he’d achieved a world-first, what better way to celebrate than with a 360-degree loop.

Photo: STUNT PILOT DARIO COSTA FLYING AEROPLANE THROUGH TWO TUNNELS IN TURKEY / SOUNDBITE FROM DARIO COSTA

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