WEBVTT 00:00:10.929 --> 00:00:13.809 This profile is the model of a wing section. 00:00:14.489 --> 00:00:15.969 It's called a wingspan. 00:00:15.969 --> 00:00:20.929 And this, in particular, is called Gottinga 398: 00:00:20.929 --> 00:00:23.670 is the wing section of this small tourist plane. 00:00:24.449 --> 00:00:27.369 The wing is pushed into the air, 00:00:27.369 --> 00:00:30.929 which divides at this point, which is the leading edge, 00:00:31.449 --> 00:00:34.929 and creates that magic that's called lift. 00:00:34.929 --> 00:00:38.209 And so we trivialized dozens of years of aerodynamics studies 00:00:38.209 --> 00:00:39.507 in a split second. 00:00:40.009 --> 00:00:43.089 This is true for both small and large aircraft: 00:00:43.089 --> 00:00:48.611 so, for example, we can go to an exotic place, on vacation, 00:00:48.611 --> 00:00:51.449 thousands of kilometres away with a few hours flying - 00:00:51.449 --> 00:00:53.036 of course, when possible. 00:00:54.569 --> 00:01:00.529 Increasing the angle between the wing and the air flow, 00:01:00.529 --> 00:01:02.649 you can have a lot of lift 00:01:02.649 --> 00:01:06.249 even when the wing moves at a relatively slow speed, 00:01:06.249 --> 00:01:10.569 how it happens - how it must happen! - during landing and take-off. 00:01:11.489 --> 00:01:12.529 But, there's a but: 00:01:13.529 --> 00:01:17.809 if the angle increases beyond a limit angle, 00:01:17.809 --> 00:01:19.609 which is called critical angle, 00:01:20.289 --> 00:01:24.972 a phenomenon occurs whereby the lift, sometimes suddenly, stops. 00:01:25.809 --> 00:01:28.689 We give a name to many phenomena: 00:01:28.689 --> 00:01:32.049 and this, which is important, as you can guess, 00:01:32.049 --> 00:01:33.489 makes no exception. 00:01:33.489 --> 00:01:36.609 And in Italian, we call it "Stallo" [Stalemate]. 00:01:36.609 --> 00:01:39.409 What a strange word the stalemate is. 00:01:39.409 --> 00:01:42.409 It is said: "The formation of the Government is stalled"; 00:01:42.409 --> 00:01:45.489 "The meeting came to a standstill." 00:01:45.489 --> 00:01:48.069 But also in more trivial things: if we are on a diet, 00:01:48.069 --> 00:01:51.129 "The loss of pounds has stalled." 00:01:51.129 --> 00:01:56.529 We associate the word "Stallo" with immobilism, with non-action: 00:01:56.529 --> 00:02:00.569 yet, if a wing has a lift, and stalls, 00:02:01.169 --> 00:02:06.009 suddenly it can only do what it can do: 00:02:06.009 --> 00:02:09.133 that is to fly ballistically towards the ground, 00:02:09.133 --> 00:02:11.449 fall or something. 00:02:11.969 --> 00:02:15.609 The English use a very similar word, "stall." 00:02:15.609 --> 00:02:17.609 Spanish people say "perdida" instead 00:02:17.609 --> 00:02:21.569 which is a term that evokes something much more serious. 00:02:21.569 --> 00:02:23.689 The Germans, who are always very accurate, 00:02:23.689 --> 00:02:28.489 they call it "Strömungsabrisse", which means "demolition of the flow": 00:02:28.489 --> 00:02:29.529 very technical. 00:02:29.529 --> 00:02:33.529 All in all, I prefer the term we attribute. 00:02:34.329 --> 00:02:38.209 I didn't show up: I'm an astronomer, I build telescopes, 00:02:38.209 --> 00:02:44.129 tools that I launch into space, at the conquest of planets or comets; 00:02:44.129 --> 00:02:46.889 or that we mount on telescopes 00:02:46.889 --> 00:02:50.689 in the most hidden places on our planet, 00:02:50.689 --> 00:02:53.929 for example on top of the Hawaii Islands or the Canary Islands, 00:02:53.929 --> 00:02:57.009 or in the desert of Chile, Arizona or California. 00:02:57.797 --> 00:02:59.289 For work, whenever possible, 00:02:59.809 --> 00:03:02.449 I move a lot with commercial traffic. 00:03:03.049 --> 00:03:07.689 And when the plane, until almost twenty years ago, 00:03:07.689 --> 00:03:10.489 has some modest turbulence, 00:03:11.009 --> 00:03:13.849 I usually get nervous, I start sweating, 00:03:13.849 --> 00:03:16.048 open the air vent; 00:03:16.048 --> 00:03:19.769 and I begin to express, perhaps aloud, my opinion 00:03:19.769 --> 00:03:22.449 that maybe it isn't worth the risk 00:03:22.449 --> 00:03:26.489 for the mirrors, or the lenses, that we're trying to study. 00:03:26.489 --> 00:03:30.449 And of course, my colleagues don't miss an opportunity to gloat, 00:03:30.878 --> 00:03:32.129 pointing out 00:03:32.129 --> 00:03:36.729 that my expressions, sometimes very colorful, 00:03:36.729 --> 00:03:39.169 are at odds with statistical evidence 00:03:39.169 --> 00:03:43.969 that flights, transports by commercial plane, 00:03:43.969 --> 00:03:47.449 remain one of the most statistically secure systems. 00:03:48.209 --> 00:03:52.769 And so happens what I couldn't have foreseen either, 00:03:52.769 --> 00:03:56.569 and that many friends would not have suspected at all: 00:03:56.569 --> 00:03:59.769 in 2004, in a summer of complete loneliness - 00:03:59.769 --> 00:04:01.689 let's say unlucky in love - 00:04:01.689 --> 00:04:03.999 I sign up - like this, just to do something new, 00:04:03.999 --> 00:04:07.889 something strange, something life-changing, 00:04:07.889 --> 00:04:11.878 I take flying lessons, and it's a revelation to me. 00:04:11.878 --> 00:04:15.489 Looking at the world from above is a fantastic, magical thing; 00:04:15.489 --> 00:04:19.689 I buy an old tourist plane right away, 00:04:19.689 --> 00:04:20.699 with two partners, 00:04:20.699 --> 00:04:24.129 with which we spend more time fixing it than flying it. 00:04:24.129 --> 00:04:26.279 Besides, I think with that little plane 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:28.889 we never left the Mugello Valley, 00:04:28.889 --> 00:04:31.190 from which we had our first flights. 00:04:31.729 --> 00:04:34.649 And all the people who come to this world 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:38.169 ask, perhaps frightened, what happens 00:04:38.169 --> 00:04:43.729 when the engine that moves these planes - which is very small - shuts down. 00:04:44.609 --> 00:04:47.129 The plane becomes a kind of glider: 00:04:47.129 --> 00:04:50.592 it's not much of a glider, but it's what we need right now. 00:04:50.592 --> 00:04:52.049 And technically, 00:04:52.049 --> 00:04:55.769 you can even land the plane in a tiny square of land. 00:04:56.289 --> 00:05:01.009 In the course, this manoeuvre - simulated, but not so much - 00:05:01.009 --> 00:05:05.089 although with an instructor at your side ready to handle the situation, 00:05:05.089 --> 00:05:07.379 is performed over and over again. 00:05:08.119 --> 00:05:10.919 Strange as it may seem, 00:05:10.919 --> 00:05:14.929 most fatal accidents in this world, 00:05:14.929 --> 00:05:17.489 does not occur due to lack of propulsion, 00:05:17.489 --> 00:05:20.569 which, however, is now an extremely rare phenomenon, 00:05:20.569 --> 00:05:22.569 apart from cases of gross errors, 00:05:22.569 --> 00:05:24.759 such as running out of fuel; 00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:28.009 but rather, because during the slow flight, 00:05:28.009 --> 00:05:31.289 maybe just in the take-off and landing phases, 00:05:31.849 --> 00:05:35.209 you can't keep between you and the stalemate 00:05:35.729 --> 00:05:39.369 all those intervals, those obstacles, that distance 00:05:39.369 --> 00:05:43.439 that they teach you obsessively, during the course, to keep. 00:05:44.729 --> 00:05:48.889 Because stalemate can also be something natural: 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:53.369 you're flying, and maybe one of the two wings stalls; 00:05:53.369 --> 00:05:56.169 and if, for example, you stall with the right wing, 00:05:56.169 --> 00:05:59.969 the plane suddenly starts pointing its nose 00:05:59.969 --> 00:06:02.529 in the opposite direction to the one you're flying: 00:06:02.529 --> 00:06:04.889 can be very confusing. 00:06:04.889 --> 00:06:09.329 Moreover, the stall can be solved in a relatively simple way: 00:06:09.329 --> 00:06:13.649 you just deliberately crash the plane for a few seconds, 00:06:13.649 --> 00:06:18.469 so that this one picks up speed and starts to have lift again. 00:06:18.469 --> 00:06:24.329 This is an unnatural move that is taught to the pilot 00:06:24.329 --> 00:06:26.520 so that you avoid, 00:06:26.520 --> 00:06:29.609 when the aircraft is losing altitude, 00:06:29.609 --> 00:06:32.409 to try to put your nose up, 00:06:32.409 --> 00:06:35.009 which would further worsen the situation: 00:06:35.009 --> 00:06:37.249 but rather to promote, second it. 00:06:37.809 --> 00:06:41.649 It is an unnatural move, obsessively taught to the student, 00:06:42.289 --> 00:06:47.255 and which is summed up in the phrase: "In flight, speed is life". 00:06:47.915 --> 00:06:52.089 And so, we get to the stall date, 00:06:52.649 --> 00:06:58.049 which in my case happens at 12:17 on July 17th, 2011. 00:06:58.689 --> 00:07:03.329 The appointment is not in Samarkand, but in Massalengo, near Milan, 00:07:03.329 --> 00:07:09.409 where I am a passenger on the plane of a friend of mine who is flying. 00:07:09.409 --> 00:07:11.249 I was an instructor at the time, 00:07:11.809 --> 00:07:14.769 but it's just a fun flight. 00:07:15.929 --> 00:07:20.129 It happens because we don't prevent a series of mistakes, 00:07:20.129 --> 00:07:24.429 and we only rush to fix it at the last minute. 00:07:24.969 --> 00:07:27.209 Because in these little planes, 00:07:27.209 --> 00:07:31.729 although they are slower than commercial traffic, 00:07:31.729 --> 00:07:35.289 actually, flying quite low compared to scheduled aircraft, 00:07:35.849 --> 00:07:39.649 there's no time to review the footage of your life, 00:07:39.649 --> 00:07:42.689 like we hear in passengers 00:07:43.092 --> 00:07:45.449 of a plane that undergoes some emergency. 00:07:45.449 --> 00:07:48.769 Plus, in that case someone else is flying for you, 00:07:48.769 --> 00:07:50.958 and this is certainly not the case here. 00:07:51.369 --> 00:07:55.209 With these little planes, everything happens damn fast: 00:07:56.049 --> 00:07:59.649 the stalling plane, the crashing plane on one side, 00:07:59.649 --> 00:08:01.449 me returning to command - 00:08:01.449 --> 00:08:04.575 all these planes have dual controls, as in driving schools; 00:08:05.249 --> 00:08:09.009 the aeroplane regaining speed, lift; 00:08:09.009 --> 00:08:11.922 and yet, unfortunately, at that point we are very low: 00:08:11.922 --> 00:08:13.409 we have trees in front of us. 00:08:13.409 --> 00:08:15.849 And the words resonate in my ears 00:08:15.849 --> 00:08:18.569 that the instructors have told me a thousand times, 00:08:18.569 --> 00:08:20.999 and that I myself keep telling my students. 00:08:20.999 --> 00:08:25.169 That is, when we are slow, and we have an obstacle before us, 00:08:25.169 --> 00:08:29.649 trying to fly over it, getting the plane up even higher, 00:08:29.649 --> 00:08:31.249 could be hopeless. 00:08:31.249 --> 00:08:34.169 Much better to get into the treetops, 00:08:34.169 --> 00:08:39.029 rather than running the risk of stalling in front of it, or over it. 00:08:39.649 --> 00:08:41.729 I meditated for a long time 00:08:41.729 --> 00:08:45.809 if I had the opportunity to acknowledge this mistake earlier, 00:08:46.329 --> 00:08:48.929 and on my obviously erroneous assessment 00:08:48.929 --> 00:08:52.162 that verbally alerting my flightmate, 00:08:52.162 --> 00:08:53.172 who was in charge, 00:08:53.172 --> 00:08:56.274 was sufficient to solve the issue. 00:08:57.062 --> 00:08:58.169 There's nothing to do: 00:08:59.009 --> 00:09:01.929 when you're 300 feet off the ground, with a stalled wing, 00:09:01.929 --> 00:09:03.849 you must not think, you must act. 00:09:03.849 --> 00:09:05.054 And so I did. 00:09:05.054 --> 00:09:06.978 We went into the treetop, 00:09:07.572 --> 00:09:09.689 the crown dampened the speed of the plane, 00:09:10.229 --> 00:09:12.239 a trunk has ripped one of the wings apart, 00:09:12.239 --> 00:09:16.609 we landed upside down on the edge of a canal. 00:09:17.609 --> 00:09:19.689 Damage to aircraft tanks 00:09:19.689 --> 00:09:24.329 made the gasoline leak out, so the plane didn't lit. 00:09:24.969 --> 00:09:26.729 We came out in a bit of a trouble: 00:09:26.729 --> 00:09:27.869 I was almost unharmed, 00:09:27.869 --> 00:09:30.024 my flight companion had the need 00:09:30.024 --> 00:09:32.849 of a few weeks of hospital, 00:09:32.849 --> 00:09:34.147 a few months to recuperate. 00:09:34.769 --> 00:09:38.929 But we both flew back together as soon as we could. 00:09:39.809 --> 00:09:43.841 Because, by stealing a term from the horse racing, 00:09:43.841 --> 00:09:47.329 "Saddle hurts, saddle heals": 00:09:47.929 --> 00:09:50.489 so, even though I had to use violence, 00:09:50.489 --> 00:09:53.009 I tried as soon as I could to fly back. 00:09:55.289 --> 00:09:59.009 Of course, the world has changed, not just in the way we fly. 00:09:59.649 --> 00:10:03.689 Now I'm doing it in a much wiser and much more rational way, 00:10:03.689 --> 00:10:07.649 perhaps obsessively analyzing weather conditions 00:10:07.649 --> 00:10:10.169 or the conditions of the runway where I must land; 00:10:10.169 --> 00:10:14.129 or by continually testing me in marginal conditions, 00:10:14.573 --> 00:10:16.209 but in a safe situation, 00:10:16.209 --> 00:10:18.569 to avoid having to do it suddenly, 00:10:18.569 --> 00:10:21.009 in the face of a genuine emergency. 00:10:21.969 --> 00:10:25.009 And so, you learn that being defensive 00:10:25.009 --> 00:10:27.769 doesn't necessarily mean taking a step back, 00:10:28.289 --> 00:10:31.569 but rather to be able to have the awareness 00:10:31.569 --> 00:10:35.369 of when taking a step back is the only possible way. 00:10:36.049 --> 00:10:38.289 So, don't stop flying, absolutely: 00:10:38.289 --> 00:10:40.609 on the contrary, almost fly more. 00:10:40.609 --> 00:10:45.089 But to do so with an awareness of that information 00:10:45.089 --> 00:10:47.609 that until that moment you had only read in the books, 00:10:47.609 --> 00:10:50.409 had been told to you by a lot of other people - 00:10:50.619 --> 00:10:54.269 on the other hand, we cannot make all the possible mistakes in our lives - 00:10:54.969 --> 00:10:59.091 and all of a sudden seep into your pores. 00:10:59.689 --> 00:11:05.289 And the whole world suddenly takes on a completely different flavor. 00:11:06.919 --> 00:11:10.809 Suddenly, everything becomes a bonus, everything becomes free; 00:11:10.809 --> 00:11:15.169 and so you find yourself celebrating the anniversaries of this rebirth. 00:11:15.169 --> 00:11:16.799 Soon it'll be ten years from now, 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:19.249 and I can't wait to celebrate adulthood. 00:11:20.049 --> 00:11:24.569 And learn to try to do 00:11:24.569 --> 00:11:29.609 those things you left out, thinking you were going to do later, 00:11:29.609 --> 00:11:32.729 and risked remaining pure fantasies. 00:11:34.129 --> 00:11:37.849 You understand the significance of doing, compared to discussing, 00:11:38.529 --> 00:11:43.329 how easy it is to fall into unnecessary and endless discussions, 00:11:43.684 --> 00:11:45.849 that are different from achieving a goal, 00:11:45.849 --> 00:11:47.243 from achieving a result. 00:11:47.969 --> 00:11:51.889 And the accident as a metaphor for so many things that happen in life. 00:11:51.889 --> 00:11:56.929 When you have to make a quick decision to do something "wrong," 00:11:57.449 --> 00:11:59.529 like throwing yourself into the treetops, 00:11:59.529 --> 00:12:02.689 because you deem it the lesser evil, 00:12:02.689 --> 00:12:05.369 and the irrelevance of the endless discussions 00:12:05.369 --> 00:12:07.969 that you can do, maybe sitting in a bar, 00:12:07.969 --> 00:12:13.092 compared to what was more or less appropriate to do. 00:12:14.089 --> 00:12:17.489 And also the inevitability of what's beautiful. 00:12:18.489 --> 00:12:22.409 The incontrovertible fact that flying on an aircraft, 00:12:22.409 --> 00:12:24.392 and look at the world from above, 00:12:24.392 --> 00:12:29.889 or look at the sky with a telescope that's never been built before, 00:12:29.889 --> 00:12:32.849 conceal such beautiful things inside them 00:12:32.849 --> 00:12:36.089 to make this drive incredible, 00:12:36.089 --> 00:12:38.489 and prevent us from not continuing to do so. 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:42.929 Were they, were we lucky? 00:12:43.489 --> 00:12:46.929 I just acted in the way that, in flight manuals, 00:12:46.929 --> 00:12:50.529 can be found under "Recovery of the stalemate"? 00:12:51.249 --> 00:12:54.079 Maybe I should have hung the cloche on the nail. 00:12:54.079 --> 00:12:55.419 as they say, 00:12:55.419 --> 00:13:01.569 so as to put in the most abject way between me and the source of the risk 00:13:02.649 --> 00:13:07.369 a distant root, in order to simply prevent this risk? 00:13:08.019 --> 00:13:09.089 I don't know. 00:13:09.729 --> 00:13:11.489 This second chance 00:13:11.489 --> 00:13:14.286 accompanies me, invisible, for almost ten years, 00:13:14.849 --> 00:13:18.329 and I'm not sure I used it the best way. 00:13:18.329 --> 00:13:22.369 But I'm sure, incontrovertibly certain, 00:13:22.889 --> 00:13:25.849 to keep trying to do it with all my will.