Frecce Tricolori Pilot Dies In Ultralight Crash In Northeast Italy

Capt. Alessio Ghersi was flying with a relative on an ultralight plane when the plane crashed killing each occupants.

An Alpi Aviation Pioneer 300 ultralight, registration I-8548, crashed for unknown motive close to Lusevera, Udine, northeastern Italy, round 18.30LT on April 29, 2023. The ultralight had taken off from Campoformido airfield with two individuals on board, who had been each killed within the accident. In a while the identical day it was introduced that one in every of them was Capt. Alessio Ghersi, one of many pilots of the Italian Air Force’s Frecce Tricolori show staff.

Capt. Ghersi, who was about to begin his fifth airshow season with the staff, was flying with a relative. The causes of the crash will not be identified and an investigation to find what occurred has been introduced.

34 years previous, Ghersi was assigned the “Pony 5” place, the second proper wingman of the Frecce Tricolori, that holds the Guinness World Record for being the most important navy show staff flying with jets (10). He enrolled within the Italian Air Pressure Academy in 2007 and, after the completion of flight coaching, graduated as a fight prepared pilot on the Eurofighter Hurricane at Grosseto airbase, the place he was assigned to the 4° Stormo (Wing). In 2017 he was chosen to affix the Frecce Tricolori for the 2018 airshow season.

He was a really well-known and cherished Frecce Tricolori pilot: his sudden loss shocked the Italian aviation neighborhood, as proved by the variety of posts expressing sympathy and solidarity with the household, the Frecce Tricolori and the Italian Air Pressure, that flooded the social media networks few hours after the information began to be circulated.

Il #CapoSMD Amm. #CavoDragone, appresa la triste notizia della scomparsa del Cap. Alessio Ghersi dell’#AeronauticaMilitare, pilota delle @FrecceTricolori, esprime ai familiari del militare e all’Aeronautica Militare profondo cordoglio a nome delle #ForzeArmate🇮🇹 e suo personale pic.twitter.com/bjCUBl06cA

— Forze Armate StatoMaggioreDifesa (@SM_Difesa) April 30, 2023

Following the accident, the Italian Air Pressure determined to cancel the standard Could 1 occasion, the primary public show of the 12 months of the Frecce Tricolori at their homebase in Rivolto, which marks the top of the winter coaching and the start of the airshow season. It’s not clear how and to what extent the tragic lack of one in every of its pilots will have an effect on the schedule of staff, that performs an important position within the celebrations of the a centesimal anniversary of the Aeronautica Militare. However that one is a secondary subject now; for the Italian Air Pressure, Ghersi’s household and pals, it is a time of mourning.

Stefano D’Urso is a contract journalist and contributor to TheAviationist based mostly in Lecce, Italy. A graduate in Industral Engineering he is additionally finding out to realize a Grasp Diploma in Aerospace Engineering. Digital Warfare, Loitering Munitions and OSINT strategies utilized to the world of navy operations and present conflicts are amongst his areas of experience.

David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and skim navy aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and lots of others, masking aviation, protection, warfare, trade, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with completely different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Pressure, a personal pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.