On the Wing

Melissa Burns has chosen the great hostile and untamed spaces of Alaska to indulge her passions for extremes.

Clark Butson founded an airline in the heart of Australia's arid desert. Its goal: to unite the isolated communities of the province of Pilbara, in the west of the country.

Ivo Daniel Velasquez is an anonymous hero. At the controls of his plane, he defies the quite extraordinary flying conditions of Bolivia.

Formerly employed by illegal loggers or illegal gold miners, Fernando Bezerra has decided to give up everything to take part in the fight for the preservation of the Amazon.

In Colombia, Claudio Petro ensures on board of his DC3 the air connections.

On our planet, there are places that people cannot easily reach, spots where nature reigns supreme. Places where the environment is vast and awesome, and the sense freedom is deep.

In French Guiana, many villages are still very isolated. For many people, the air is the only way to go shopping, to get medical care, to transport schoolchildren, etc.

At the helm of his small single-engine aircraft, Ian Lemaiyan, a Kenyan biologist and bush pilot, flies over the savannah to protect the rhinos.

François-Xavier Mayer, known as “Fifou”, never tires of flying over the fantastic landscapes of his native land, Madagascar.

In Mexico there is an ancestral and devastating pastoral tradition… the burn. The peasants set fire to their fields to clean them in order to sow the next crops.

Deep in the New Zealand Alps, Guy and Fiona Redfern are the flying farmers at the end of the world.

There are places on our planet where roads stop, where trains cannot run, where boats cannot dock. Welcome to the Vanuatu Archipelago.

Maheanuu Mourin is a pilot of the only Polynesian airline, Air Tahiti. This 40-year-old Tahitian serves the most isolated islands of this region as big as Europe.

We set out to meet Sebastien, a former airline pilot. We head for Canada and its vast expanses.

In the north of Scotland, Colin McAllister is an airplane pilot in the Orkney Islands. In this isolated territory, it is better to embark at its side to move quickly.

Alessandro Huber works for a small transport company that flies over Suriname.

Lying to the north of the Vanuatu archipelago in the South Pacific, the Banks Islands are literally cut off from the world.