The great passions of Egidio Gavazzi there were four: nature photography, publishing, aerial flight and the environment. Not necessarily in that order. died yesterday at 84 while at the controls of his touring plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed at the Padua airport where his niece was waiting for him. He crashed into a pine at the outer edge of the runway, perhaps he had tried an extreme maneuver to avoid an apartment building. The aircraft caught fire immediately and the rescues were useless. The plane was impounded and the National Agency for Flight Safety will open an investigation to ascertain the causes of the accident.
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I express condolences and closeness to the loved ones of the person who unfortunately missed and also closeness to the residents of the neighborhood who have experienced moments of great fear, said the mayor of Padua, Sergio Giordani. It could have been a disaster if homes were involved or if the aircraft crashed into the busy road. A witness said he saw Gavazzi’s plane glide over a square that was once occupied by a petrol station and veer to avoid crashing into the building.
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Gavazzi, descended from a large Lombard industrial family, was born in Erba, in the province of Como, but had long lived in Milan. He had founded magazines that have made the history of Italian environmentalism, including Airone(time of Cairo Editore), Aqua, Silvae Alisei. Publications that combined scientific rigor with disclosure to the general public, without ever forgetting the value of the photographic image that Gavazzi always wanted at a high level, precisely because of his love for nature photography. He had in fact also given birth to the Italian photographic hunting society, and had contributed to the foundation of Greenpeace Italy.
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He was also fond of airplanes, which he had continued to fly in old age. He had also written a book on the subject, Desire to fly. A volume that is more than an autobiography and testifies to a boundless love for airplanes: Those who as children feel the desire to fly choose a bird in which to imagine themselves. I chose the kite. Predator, individualist and vagabond, he had written, also recalling the figure of his father, pilot officer of the Royal Air Force. Egidio Gavazzi he took his gliding license at the age of 17 in 1954, four years after that for airplanes, in 1959 for helicopters. Flight is the metaphor of life. And as for life, a journey has to be long and adventurous. The plane he felt closest to his conception of flight was the Russian Yak 52, an aircraft that experts called “ugly and bizarre”. You do not enter a Yak, you wear it and the heart has its reasons that reason does not know.
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Finally the environmental struggles in first person: The section of Greenpeace born in my house. We fought and achieved success, he recalled.
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June 20, 2021 (change June 20, 2021 | 00:33)
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