AD MEMORIAM



Two extraordinary guys, of a very special group of people.
A day like lot of others spent risking their own lives to protect and save our forest estate and our homes.
The Big Yellow Red Bird suddenly steps into a couple of cables (which weren’t thought to be there? Coming suddenly out of the fire’s smoke?).
The wing breaks, looses the stabilizer, the Bird wavers, but the cables are power lines and touching each other they make a short circuit, sparks, fuel from the wounded wing catches fire.
The Big Yellow Red Bird now is yellow and red from fire.
The two extraordinary guys belonging to the very special group of people immediately understand that for them is the end, there isn’t anything more to do.
But those extraordinary guys risk their own lives every day and even in that moment they know they have to sacrifice their lives to save other people’s.
The Wounded Bird tries a last desperate flight towards the sea, but at only five hundred meters from the coast it cannot sustain itself anymore and crashes near a solitary house, at the moment luckily uninhabited.
The two extraordinary guys of the very special group of people fulfilled also their last mission: they perished saving other people.

Tuscany, Italy - On March 18th, 2005 at about 6 p.m. a Canadair CL-415 aerial fire bomber #22 of Italian Protezione Civile, after few drops over a forest fire near Forte dei Marmi in Tuscany, crashed near an uninhabited mansion at the area boundary. While conducting a water drop, the aircraft collided with power transmission lines and caught fire. Reports indicate that the crippled aircraft crashed while the pilots attempted to coax it towards the sea. The two pilots, Stefano Bandini and Claudio Rossetti, 38 and 40 respectively, died in the impact. Investigators’ initial reports indicate that the cause of the Forte dei Marmi fire was arson.

In a twist of fate, this same aircraft #22, Italian registration I-DPCK was the one I visited and photographed personally in August 2003 at Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport. Because it was the one for which I had the best photographic material it was ultimately chosen to “dress” the three-dimensional model I built for X-Plane with the help of Sergio Santagada and Massimo Durando; and it became the first default plane for X-Plane version 8 to fully utilize all the new features of the release.

From now on, when you fly this Big Yellow Red Bird, please remember Stefano and Claudio, these amazing guys, remember those dear to them, but remember also all their surviving colleagues, who even today continue risking their own lives to protect us from fires, which all too often are set by irresponsible people.

I wish to dedicate “our” airplane, which no longer exists in the real world, to Stefano and Claudio, to their families and all their valiant colleagues.

Stefano and Claudio, you will always live in our hearts together with your Big Yellow Red Bird which continues flying with you in virtual skies of all over the world.

Cristiano Maggi





Vai alla pagina in italiano