Pilot project from Mexico to Mallow

A crash landing is leading to a crash course for two schools separated by thousands of miles of ocean in their different cultures and languages.

A new penpal initiative has been set up between a school in North Cork and one in Mexico’s second city, Guadalajara, by the daughter of a pilot who famously landed a jet on Mallow racecourse.

Captain Ruben Ocaña carried out a successful emergency landing of a Gulfstream jet on the racecourse on April 18, 1983.