DARIO COSTA, a professional race and stunt pilot, fired up his specially modified Zivko Edge 540 race plane inside one of the dual Çatalca Tunnels on Turkey’s Northern Marmara Highway on Sept. 4.

With over two decades of flying experience and numerous aviation feats to his credit, the 41-year-old had logged in excess of 5,000 hours in the air — more than half in high-performance aerobatics. He’d even become the first Italian to notch a win in the Red Bull Air Race Challenger Class. Costa had been dreaming of Tunnel Pass for years, and it would be his most demanding and complex undertaking yet.

Surrounded by the concrete arc of the walls, Costa took off in the dim light of the first tunnel at 6:43 a.m. local time, with the early hour putting the sun at his back and offering optimal ambient conditions. Limited overhead clearance meant that he had to keep the aircraft on a flight path just above the asphalt while also managing a claustrophobic margin of only about four meters between each wingtip and the unforgiving walls.

Changes to airflow, combined with the highly sensitive steering of the aircraft, required reaction times of less than 250 milliseconds as Costa executed fine hand movements of mere millimeters throughout the flight.

One of the most critical moments came when the plane flashed through the 360m gap between the tunnels, which exposed the lightweight aircraft to crosswinds as Costa prepared to thread it into the narrow opening of the second tunnel.

As Costa continued, he was averaging 245kph while also managing changes in the second tunnel’s incline and shape. When the race plane shot out of the other side, the Italian pulled it into a celebratory loop before landing.

From takeoff to exiting the second tunnel, the flight covered a distance of 2.26km. And in less than 44 seconds, Costa had set a certified Guinness World Record plus four more records.

The Tunnel Pass flight was recognized with a Guinness World Record for Longest Tunnel Flown through with an Aeroplane (1,730m) and Costa was presented with the official certificate.

The four other notable records were: first aeroplane flight through a tunnel, longest flight under a solid obstacle, first aeroplane flight through two tunnels and first aeroplane takeoff from a tunnel.

(SD-Agencies)