A blind Italian woman became a pilot and has already flown 200 hours.
Lucia Sabrina Papa has congenital retinal degeneration, which prevents her from seeing. Despite this, she dreamed of flying since childhood - since she lived with her family near the airport and heard the sounds of airplanes every day.
I was drawn to this powerful roar, which seemed to want to tear me off the ground. I constantly imagined the sky - huge and free, while the earth for me was a constant obstacle.
I also always say that in my childhood I wanted to be an airplane, not a pilot, because the airplane flies higher and faster than birds.
– says Sabrina.
However, life first brought Sabrina to IT, and only in 2016 she began to gradually return to her childhood dream.
At first she flew light aircraft alongside pilots, but then found an instructor who was sure she could master the controls of the plane.
Together, they devised a tactile method that helped Sabrina read instruments (via beeps) and understand the plane's position in space.
Since then, the Italian woman, together with the instructor, has already flown 200 hours - first in light planes, and now in heavier private planes. She told more about her story in her autobiographical book Flying in the Invisible ("Flight to the Invisible").