Angelo d'Arrigo
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Angelo d'Arrigo (April 3, 1961 - March 26, 2006) was an Italian aviator who held a number of world records in the field of flight, principally with microlights and hang gliders, with or without motors. He has been referred to as the "Human Condor"[1].
D'Arrigo was born in Catania, Sicily. In 2001 he initiated a sequence of breath-taking events which saw him flying alongside various birds of prey as he attempted to learn from them their techniques for migratory flight by taking advantage of thermal air currents for long distance flight with low energy consumption.
In 2002 he crossed the Sahara and the Mediterranean with an eagle while his hang glider was towed with a microlight.
In 2003 he flew 5,500 kilometres from northern Siberia to the Caspian Sea in Iran in the company of a flock of Siberian Cranes [2] who had been born in captivity and, due to imprinting (psychology), considered him their parent: the bird is at risk of extinction and in order to try to save the species, Russian ornithologists hatched this plan: have the eggs incubated under Angelo's hang-glider, so the chicks saw this as they hatched. Have Angelo be with the chicks as they fledge. And when they were ready to fly, have them fly alongside Angelo so they would consider him their mentor. That way, he could show them the traditional migratory route for their species. They had no other way to learn it. This approach was similar to the one taken in the movie Fly Away Home.
In 2004 he was aerotowed and released over Mount Everest [3] another world record; And he flew near the Everest with a trained Nepalese eagle. The story is fully narrated in the documentary Flying Over Everest by director Fabio Toncelli.
In 2006 he followed the migratory routes of the condor, over the Aconcagua mountains in the Andean Cordillera, the highest mountain in the Americas.
In March 2006, he died in an accident during an airshow at Comiso, Italy, at the age of 44. A small Sky Arrow plane, in which he was a passenger, fell 200 meters to the ground. Both d'Arrigo and the pilot, a general of the Italian Air Force and ex-test pilot, were killed on impact.
At the time of his death, Angelo was engaged in planning an expedition to Peru to re-introduce two Andean condors, which had been bred in captivity and raised by d'Arrigo at his home on Mount Etna.
In memory of her husband, his widow Laura has instituted a charity, the Fondazione Angelo d'Arrigo, with the aim of helping children in Peru.
Angelo d'Arrigo was posthumously given the alternative sportsperson's award at the 2006 Laureus World Sports awards [1].
