Fabrizio Di Michele, The Consul General of Italy in New York, hosted an exclusive event on August 12 at La Devozione in the iconic Chelsea Market welcoming The Fecce Tricolori “Tricolor Arrows”, during their North American Tour, NAT 24. The Italian Air Force, embarked on an epic mission aboard the MB-339 PAN journeying through Canada and the United States marking its return to New York after 32 years.
In a Giornale Italo Americano exclusive we spoke with Colonel Stefano Pietropaoli who shares “Our main objective to be here in the United States and Canada is to say thank you to all the Italians that are living here. It was really impressive to meet all the Americans, all the Canadians but most of all, all the Italian residents living here giving us a huge lesson on how to take a tradition from Italy, how to love Italy and how to love the Italian flag; that for us was one of the best lessons we had from this tour.”
Captain Simone Fanfarillo shares it takes an impressive 10 minutes to fly between Philadelphia and New York. Full of pride in himself and his team he takes formation as Pony 5, the 2nd Right Wingman, one of ten pilots which together make up the Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale, National Aerobatic Team, (PAN). PAN was created in 1961 at the Rivolto Air Base in the Province of Udine.
Lieutenant Colonel Salvatore Massimilano, Commander of the Frecce Tricolor, reminisced on the days mission. “We just landed a few hours ago from our flyby over New York. It was a really an important day for us because after almost two months that we left Italy, now we are in New York. This morning, we had a chance to fly in such an iconic city like New York. We saw some picture of the previous tour of the Frecce Tricolori 32 years ago and now living this emotion live for us is a real unforgettable day. We are ambassadors of our nation, we are ambassadors of our Airforce, Auonautica Militaire, and thats the way we do it. We just bring our green, white and red smokes around the world.”