Dorine Bourneton: the French pilot who flew again after a plane crash left her paralysed

As a child, Dorine Bourneton dreamt of flying over the African savannah or the icy wilderness of Alaska. Born in Noirétable, a village in the Loire department, she regularly flew with her father, a pilot himself, while growing up. 

She enjoyed books about aeroplane adventures and was inspired by the heroic deeds of big names in aviation history, such as Gregory ‘Pappy’ Boyington, the World War Two US fighter ace.

On May 12, 1991, when she was just 16 years old, tragedy struck.

The Piper PA28 Archer she boarded with three other passengers crashed into a mountain in bad weather after a pilot miscalculation. 

The only survivor, she spent 12 hours trapped in the fuselage before she was rescued by two hikers who heard her calls. She was rushed to the nearest hospital and straight into theatre for surgery. When she woke up, she was told she had lost the use of both legs, becoming paraplegic.

She could have easily wallowed in self-pity, but Ms Bourneton kept dreaming. Four years later, she obtained her pilot’s licence and was cleared to fly. 

However, her achievements did not stop there. She wrote her first book in 2002, got involved in politics and successfully lobbied to change the law to allow disabled people to become professional pilots in 2003. 

She became the first woman with a disability to become an aerobatic pilot and was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 2008 (later elevated to officer rank).

In 2013 she was named patron of the French air force’s flagship aircraft, Rafale. 

She wrote a second book in 2015 and her life has also been the subject of a documentary and a TV-film, Au dessus des nuages.

Since January 28, she has been starring in Voltige, a play inspired by her life, at the Théâtre du Petit Montparnasse in Paris. 

Connexion: What does it feel like to play yourself on stage?

Dorine Bourneton: Using my own experience, I want to evoke – as accurately as possible – the emotions of what it means to have a plane crash at 16, to learn you are suddenly paraplegic, to fly again at 17. I want to prendre les commandes (take the controls) – pun intended!

This play is a way of coming to terms with my own journey and helping the audience understand it, so they feel sympathy and empathy. 

We all have wings. Sometimes they are restrained, atrophied or injured, but they are there nonetheless. We need strength to open them.

Connexion: How did you find the motivation to fly again?

DB: Flying was a childhood dream, a conduit for a life of adventure and freedom. I realised that many pilots had had accidents and still flown again afterwards. 

The walls of my hospital room were plastered with posters of [French aviator] Jean Mermoz, the P-51 Mustang flown by Tom Cruise in Top Gun, and Howard Hughes’ aircraft. 

I drew courage from their lives, projected myself forward and told myself I could do it as well. Being disabled does not mean my legs get in my way. 

Connexion: You are very similar to Douglas Bader in that regard, the double-amputee UK fighter pilot.

DB: He was another source of inspiration. I read his book in my hospital bed. It may sound silly, but I remember telling myself that we had the same initials, DB. I clung to that too, telling myself that we would have a similar destiny, so to speak.

Connexion: Were you nervous the first time you got back into a plane after the accident?

DB: Nervous, shaky, frightened and very, very scared. I put my trust in my instructor, a 75-year-old volunteer who I almost regarded as a grandfather.

Later, I met Gilles Gonçalvès, a tetraplegic pilot who only had the use of three fingers, when I resumed my flight training in Toulouse. He welcomed me with a huge smile. 

He repaired watches, an extremely meticulous occupation. I told myself that if he could do that job and fly a plane, then I could probably manage it too. 

Connexion: You could have focused on his disability, his three fingers, yet you focused on his smile. Is this a clue to your own mindset?

DB: All those little details, small gestures and attentions were incredibly reassuring. It counterbalanced the harshness of a society so ill-fitted to disabled people. 

I was told at 16 that my future would be about receiving benefits, lying on the sofa watching TV. Only shopping centres were accessible back then – hardly the most inspiring places to thrive.

Connexion: Is being a pioneer necessarily about pushing boundaries?

DB: In a sense, it is. It means opening up a path, whether administrative, psychological or social. It means pushing something back. You go where no one has gone before. You open a way, a door.

My starting point was a personal reconstruction. I wanted to get back into a plane and did not want failure to define me. 

I wanted to reclaim my freedom of movement through flying. I am not competitive by nature. I would never have been a champion of anything.

Connexion: Surely being the first disabled female pilot to perform aerobatics implies a competitive spirit?

DB: I did not do it for those reasons. I have more of an adventurous spirit. That is how I see the play Voltige, actually: as an adventure. Only aerobatic flights last four minutes, not 90.

I did it for the shows, to meet people and to change regulations for disabled pilots. I wanted to show that with manual flight controls, you can be a professional pilot and an aerobatic pilot. Being ‘able in a different way’.

Connexion: You stopped aerobatic flying in 2023 after becoming aware of the effects of climate change. What did you see from the sky?

DB: I remember a flight where fields that should have been green were dry and yellowed because of a lack of irrigation. I found that terrifying. 

It reminded me of La Nuit des Temps, a novel by René Barjavel that I read as a child. He wrote about planes falling from the sky because the air was too polluted. That book had a huge impact on me.

But it is mainly because I took part in a workshop organised by La Fresque du Climat, an association founded in 2018 to raise awareness of the causes of global warming.

I also wanted silence, to get away from the noise of an aerobatic aircraft. It left me half-deaf. I have taken up gliding since then. It is much quieter. You become a bird and fly with the wind. It is wonderful.

Connexion: You have been personally involved in changing the laws around disability. How do you assess government action on disability issues?

DB: We have made enormous progress thanks to new technologies. There are exoskeletons now, and wheelchairs are nothing like they were 30 years ago. Efforts have been made to improve accessibility in certain public places, the Metro in particular.

That said, we are now short of funding. There was extraordinary momentum during the Olympics and Paralympic Games in Paris, but it fell flat because of a lack of resources. 

Given the current political context, accessibility is perhaps not quite the top priority today unfortunately.

I have been paraplegic for 35 years now, so I am used to fighting. I will keep moving forward.

Connexion: Last January, the British Red Arrows appointed Sasha Nash as their leader, the first time a woman has been given commanding responsibility. What was your reaction?

DB: A 51-year-old officer from the Royal Air Force and a mother of two! It makes me very happy and full of admiration – but I am also surprised that it took so long. I would love to meet her.

Find more details about Voltige, the play by Eric Métayer.