People with disabilities fly to new heights at Purdue University

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Imagine how difficult it can be to learn how to fly a plane. Now imagine how much more difficult it would be if you are deaf or paralyzed. This isn't a dream but some of the very real challenges people have overcome this summer at Purdue.

"It's an amazing feeling up there in the sky. You're just free. That's the only way I can explain it," said Wesley Major.

Wesley Major from Delaware said it took some time after his motorcycle accident four years ago to feel free. Major was paralyzed from the waist down. His mentor in rehab introduced him to the Able Flight program. He said he was depressed after the accident but feels like he can accomplish anything now.

"The sooner that you can over come your fear, your anxiety, whatever it may be that's holding you back, the quicker you start enjoying life again and you see that there are meaningful thing, purposeful things that you can do," said Major.

The Able Flight program at Purdue is a six-week program that teaches people with disabilities how to fly a plane. The program gives students of all ages proper ground and air training. Jason Jernigan came all the way from Panama City, Florida to learn how to be a pilot. He said he only had one fear of learning how to fly.

"He said basically, that the only thing he was really worried about was communication with the instructors so basically, that was his only fear when he came into this program," said Ashlyn Jernigan, Jason's sister and translator.

Jernigan is deaf. He said by completing the Able Flight program at Purdue he proved that people with disabilities can make a difference.

"He wanted to believe that the deaf world, they can do anything,except for hear. They can pretty much do anything they want to," said Jernigan through his translator.

Jernigan said he wants to become a commercial airline pilot someday. He also has dreams to own a plane business. Major plans to return to Purdue in the fall as an aviation technology graduate student.

The Able Flight program concluded on Saturday. Both Major and Jernigan said they're not only taking home a light sports pilot's license but lifelong friends and memories as well.