It is a Piper Pa18 Super Cub the plane that almost caused a tragedy on Saturday 26 April at 11:52 in Colle Sesia climbing to Capanna Margherita, at 4,230 meters above sea level on the Swiss side of Monte Rosa. The Mezzalama Trophy, "glacier marathon", was underway when the aircraft landed on a glacier of the massif. After touching the snowy terrain, it turned left and headed almost perpendicularly towards the crowd of ski mountaineers participating in the event. It then continued at full speed, taking off and moving away. "A tragedy narrowly avoided", those present defined it.

"It could have been a terrible accident", testified Luca Calzone, who filmed the scene and posted the video of the incident on social media. "An airplane pilot couldn't help but see from above the trail that goes up to Capanna Margherita, full, full of people. I thought it was landing because of an engine problem, a breakdown, and instead it turned the bow and opened the throttle", he told the press.

The model in question, improperly defined as an "ultralight" by the media, is a single-engine light touring aircraft with a high wing and fixed two-wheel landing gear, produced by the American company Piper Aircraft Corporation. Super Cubs are mostly used for bush flying (air operations carried out in the bush, where there are no landing strips), towing gliders and advertising banners and in situations where its Stol capabilities are needed, that is, as an aircraft capable of taking off and landing on short runways. According to the serial numbers, it seems that the aircraft is in the fleet of a Swiss aero club.

Below, the video of the incident: