A blind Belgian man on Saturday claimed a place in the record books after completing a tour of France in a light aeroplane.
Luc Costermans, a 41-year-old former businessman blinded two years ago in an accident, said he hoped to make it into the Guinness World Records book for his tour of the country, completed on Friday.
“I decided to complete this tour of France as a personal challenge and to send a message of hope to other physically disabled people,” said Costermans, who only began flying last November.
The 13-hour, 1 900km flight took off on Friday morning from the flying club of Visan in the south-east in a Robin DR-400 with an instructor and an expert navigator.
It stopped over in Agen in the south-east, Cholet in the west and Arras in the north and flew over Belgium before stopping in Dijon in the east and going on to Visan.
Costermans credited the achievement to the whole team, “without whom I don’t amount to much, without whom I wouldn’t be able to fly”. — AFP