PLANE AWESOME: Young Pilot Recalls Deft Landing On Steep Mountain Face

A young pilot has recalled the incredible moment she made an emergency landing on a snow-covered mountain face, saving everyone on board.

Pilot Silvia De Bon, 22, poses in undated photo. She managed to make an emergency landing on the Logorai group in Trentino, Italy at an altitude of 2100 metres, saving her brother Matteo, 27, and his girlfriend, Giorgia Qualizza, 28. (@silvia.debon.1/Newsflash)

Novice pilot Silvia De Bon, 22, managed to land a Piper PA-28 on a steep slope in the Italian Dolomites at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres.

She was forced to make the emergency landing on 29th December after the light aircraft began to lose power.

Incredibly, her crash landing was so skilled that she merely suffered a few cuts to her face while her passengers climbed out unscathed.

Silvia has now spoken to Italian media about the ordeal.

She recounted: “While it was happening I thought, ‘Sh*t, now I’m crashing.’ I wasn’t sure I could go over the ridge but I acted instinctively and I was lucky.”

Pilot Silvia De Bon, 22, poses in undated photo. She managed to make an emergency landing on the Logorai group in Trentino, Italy at an altitude of 2100 metres, saving her brother Matteo, 27, and his girlfriend, Giorgia Qualizza, 28. (@silvia.debon.1/Newsflash)

It is unclear why the Piper began to lose power, but Silvia’s cool-headedness saved the lives of her brother Mattia De Bon, 27, and his fiancee Giorgia Qualizza, 28.

Following the landing, the three were reached by mountain rescuers and taken down the slope.

Silvia – who hails from Longarone – told local media: “We were getting closer and closer to the mountain, and I said, ‘What do I do now?’

“I wasn’t sure I could get over it, so I looked left and right but I had both sides of the mountain. At that point the return manoeuvre would have been the worst thing.

“I thought the best thing to do was to continue and try to hold the plane to the end, but when I realised that it couldn’t be passed because I was lower than the summit, I decided to glide trying not to bump the nose but almost on the belly and I parked.”

Silvia was the only person on board to sustain injuries after she hit her head against the glass when she landed.

She said: “When I woke up my left side was full of blood.”

But Silvia said she will not let the ordeal deter her from getting behind the joystick again.

She local media: “If everyone who got into a car accident stopped driving, no one would ever drive again.”

Pilot Silvia De Bon, 22, poses in undated photo. She managed to make an emergency landing on the Logorai group in Trentino, Italy at an altitude of 2100 metres, saving her brother Matteo, 27, and his girlfriend, Giorgia Qualizza, 28. (@silvia.debon.1/Newsflash)

The Trento Prosecutor’s Office and the National Flight Safety Agency are investigating the incident.