Squadron Leader K M Daniel RAF

The picture above is a snap of the front page of yesterday's Sunday Supplement of  Malayala Manorama, the number one newspaper in India published both in print media as well as in digital online form. (Those who can read Malayalam language may click the image above to open the online page to read the content.)

I was surprised when I read the full page story with illustrative graphics and pictures because the hero depicted in the story is none other than my own great uncle who who left this world to his heavenly abode two decades ago.

As I started reading the story, my surprise and curiosity both began to rise. There were reasons for that.

I was reading some hitherto unknown things about a person whom we thought we knew well. I knew my late great uncle was a pilot of the Royal Air Force during the World War-2 and a commercial pilot with the erstwhile Tata Airlines which got nationalized as today's Air India later.

Besides, I was very close to Late Shri K M Daniel during the times when he was no more a serving pilot. He was younger brother of my grand mother late Mrs.K.M.Annamma . As a teenager, I was very fascinated with airplanes and the men who piloted those flying machines and obviously this uncle was my hero during those days. I remember spending several nights together listening to his adventure stories which he used to share with me.

But those were things of the past. Except we the old timers, hardly any one from the new generations had a chance to know about this pilot of the world war times. And the news paper now carried certain things which he never told me. Had I known those, he would have been a greater hero for me and perhaps I had known more interesting things of his life first hand!

For the benefit of my readers, let me briefly tell you his life history from the things I had known and also from what the newspaper now told:

K M Daniel was born and brought up in a village called Kumplampoika, few kilometers away from the present day Pathanamthitta city in Kerala. He was a couple of years younger to my grandmother who was born in 1902. They were a total of 11 siblings, sons and daughters of late Kulanjikombil Mathai, the founder head master of the present day CMS High School Kumplampoika.

My great uncle began his career as a teacher in the same school after his graduation. The family had plans to make him an ordained priest and hence he had attended some time in a seminary too.

But he was a sports enthusiast and aspired to serve the Royal Air Force and did not know the way by which he could do so. But he tried his luck by writing a plain letter to the Air Force Command that operated from Madras (present Chennai)

As luck turned in his favor, he was called for the selection process and selected. He got trained as a fighter pilot of the Royal Air Force. There were several times he saw death face to face, but escaped unscathed. 

One interesting episode is his solo flight of a single engine air craft with a cobra emerging in the cockpit, enough to make any one to loose his cool. But he took the plane to the base and landed safely and the incident made him to be known as 'Cobra Mathews' among his mates later.

There are several stories that he told me personally during the days of the war and later. I brevity, I am leaving those here.

After the world war, he retired from the RAF. He was in the rank of a Squadron Leader at that time, quite a senior position of those days. But he had never mentioned this to me. Perhaps, he thought this not so important.

Being a rare breed of experienced Indian pilot of those days, he was soon absorbed by the pioneering private airline company of India, the Tata Airlines which later became Air India.

He was the pioneering commercial pilot from India who got trained by Boeing company to fly Boeing jet planes. He had told me that it was he who took delivery of the first Boeing aircraft from USA and flew it to India way back in the 1960.

Being the pioneering international pilot from India in the Nineteen Fifties and early Sixties, he was the pilot of choice for Indian leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru. He had told me that it was he who flew the first non-stop Air India flight from Delhi to Moscow which took Smt. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit there as the first Indian envoy to USSR way back in 1947.

But he had never told me about his closeness to great leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru or Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of British India. I remember him referring these names casually during our talks. But only after reading yesterday's newspaper story, I knew how close he was with these great men of  the last century. He was one among the three who was invited from India to attend the marriage of the daughter of Lord Mount Batten in England!

Later in his life, he became a Christian preacher with several people flocking to listen to his preaching and prayers. It was a life quite contrary to his flamboyant previous life as an elite air force officer or an international VIP pilot. During that period, he hardly ever talked about it. I remember him writing letters to me when I joined Bhilai Steel Plant as an engineer. He was more concerned with spiritual aspects during that period. I remember him talking very detailed spiritual things with me when I became an young professional just as he had talked about his adventurous and glamorous past life as a pilot some years ago during my teenage days.

And to be very frank, I could hardly fathom the depth of his talks then, though I was a patient listener to him. As I was a novice in spiritual matters, I could hardly ask him any questions either. I lost a great opportunity!

I am glad that he left this worldly abode as a contented man, not in fame or wealth, but as one who was drawn to God transcending all ways of the world and the material glory!

I have now started understanding the difference!

Just a wishful thought. Had he been living now, he would have been one person with whom I could have discussed about my book of life guidance!

Remembering Two Deceased Great Uncles and Their Air India Connections!

An aircraft has been a real fascination to me right from my childhood. It remains so even now. Becoming a pilot was one of my childhood dreams. Unfortunately, it did not materialize. Sitting by the window seat of a commercial aircraft and viewing the aerial geography still remains as a fascination for me.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog in my mother tongue Malayalam that highlighted my fascination with air crafts and their adorable  pilots!

In continuation to what I wrote yesterday, I was thinking of writing something more elaborating our problems with good governance.

I changed that idea because a cousin sister of mine reminded me of a long forgotten tragic incident of an air crash  by sending a WhatsApp link to a blog that brought back much details of those things forgotten.

The blog described the details of the long forgotten Air India DC-3 Dakota Plane crash in the Nilgiri mountain ranges of South India that happened in December 1950. That was the first year of existence of the independent Indian Republic!

An Air India DC-3 Dakota Aircraft

Similar to the one which crashed in the Nilgiris in 1950

It was some information I had been seeking since my childhood, but couldn't. My cousin, Saro and the blog writer, Ms.Nina Varghese, deserved to be thanked for the unexpected help in this context. It helped me to brush up some past memories and to know more. Google helped to find another blog that provided some more info.

Now coming to the reasons of my interest in this. There are more than one reasons. Late, Mr.C.Luke, who happened to be last listed passenger of this ill-fated Air India DC-3 Dakota flight was my mother's uncle (husband of my grandmother's younger sister, whom we used to call as Kundara Ammachi.). During my childhood, it was usual for my mother and grandmother to take me with them to their home at Kundara . The photograph of the deceased young head of the family adored the front wall and the handsome face made a long imprint in my young mind. This widowed aunt used to be a qualified nurse who in those days earned a reputation as a trusted registered medical practitioner. I used to enjoy the visits to the Kundara home during those days because of the company I used to get from my mother's cousins who were all only a couple of years elder to me.

Late Mr C.Luke (Source: Family Photo Albums)

Whatever the little I had known about this uncle, Luke, was from my mother, late Mrs.Chinnamma Mathew. From her, I had learnt that this uncle of hers who met his untimely death in the air crash few years before my birth was a promising businessman and entrepreneur. The air mishap had ruined all those business and much of the family's fortunes!

In those days, there was not much of facilities for me to know more about airplanes, the flying machines about which I used to be in my childhood fantasies. In the late Fifties and the Sixties, I remember running after to scan the skies in search to have a glimpse of the aircraft that made much noise from up in the sky, only to be contented with the small silvery image that looked some thing like a small cross and disappeared as fast as it appeared.

As a child I had some rare opportunities to view some small airplanes including an opportunity to sit in the pilots seat inside a small flying club machine kept in the hangar at the small aerodrome of Trivandrum of Nineteen fifties. All these enhanced my curiosity to know more about airplanes and the fellows who flew these marvelous flying machines of modern times.

My fascination with the subject prompted my father, late Shri T.M.Mathew, to reveal a surprising truth to me. It was about his uncle (his mother's younger brother) late, Mr.K.M.Daniel (Kulanjikombil-Kumplampoika).I was much thrilled to learn that this uncle was then a serving pilot of Air India of those days. I remember my father once making a plan to take me to Kochi where he lived in those days and meet this uncle. Somehow this never happened and it remained as a disappointment for me.

A few years later, in the early years of the Nineteen sixties, some unfortunate incidents happened in the glamorous pilot life of my great uncle. He lost his job at the fag end of his flying career. A couple of years later, circumstances and fate played the cruel joke in his life that he became a resident of my own home for about three years.

Dani Appachan, we called him fondly so, became a close companion and an amazing well wisher of mine in those days when I was a high school student. Every night we used to spend hours together discussing about his past experiences first as a high school teacher, then as a World War-2 veteran of the Royal Air Force and later as a commercial pilot of Air India. I used to listen to his world trotting stories with eyes and ears fully opened!

Without actually seeing an big aircraft, I learnt much about those from this pilot uncle and in my fantasies I piloted those wonder machines! While I nursed the fantasies of flying, I also kept the hidden fear of air accidents which were not uncommon in those days. The guidance of my pilot uncle could have helped me to pursue a flying career. But to be honest, the hidden fear of air accidents prevented me from doing so! Perhaps the thoughts about the unfortunate fate of Luke uncle pulled me back!

It was Dani uncle who gave me much information about the unpredictable weather conditions that among various other things caused air accidents. I still remember him explaining how an air craft dropped like a stone when it happened to enter what is known as air pockets, the nightmares of pilots! ( Incidentally I experienced the horror of one my self some time in the Nineteen nineties while on board an Indian Airlines Boeing 720 from New Delhi to Raipur. Sitting by the window, I watched the plane losing height suddenly and then stopping  abruptly causing a few of the luggage doors getting opened to throw some of the luggage out!)

Air travel has improved much and the facilities both at the airports and the commercial air crafts have enhanced even in this country. Air travel is no more considered as a risky proposition! It is much safer than many other modes of transport, thanks to the advancement in technology.

Yet, the pilots deserves to be admired for their skills for smoothly maneuvering those huge machines with the help of some on board instruments and the instructions from the air traffic controllers. The skills and dedication of the air craft maintenance engineers and technicians also need to be honored. Modern air travel is possible due to the coordinated efforts of several people!

Luke uncle and Dani uncle are no more in this world. But they were pioneers of Independent India. 

Like wise we are all destined to fade out from the face of this world.

Do we have some destinies beyond that? 

My curiosity has now shifted to that! Perhaps I would find more information to satisfy my quests!

Missing Malaysian Flight 370 : Did it Descend to the Sea Safely?

Never in the recent history of advanced air travel and space communications, something of this kind has happened.

One of the most advanced passenger aircraft ever made by one of the most advanced aircraft manufacturer of the world and operated by one of the best airline company of Asia and commandeered by one of the best trained pilot had vanished into thin air with all the passengers and the crew in the midst of its flight without out leaving any traces. At least no traces till now, even after ten days as on today, the 18th March 2014! The aircraft went missing on 8th March 2014!

If you haven't read about all those news, just brush up those once again in these CNN News coverage about this mysterious happening. For a detailed understanding with all technical information, you may also look into the Wikipedia article about this mystery of flight 370 of the Malaysian Airlines. The aircraft was a Boeing 777-200ER, one of the most advanced commercial flying machines. It was totally designed by computers and flew entirely by the fly-by-wire technique of the advanced on board computers.

There are many pieces of curious information in this case, just as much or more as similar aviation mysteries that had happened in the past.

Had the flight crashed on the ocean surface or on land surface, by this time our satellites in the sky and the thousands who do the scanning of the satellite images would have by now got some clue. It is almost impossible for such a large aircraft to crash without leaving some evidence!

Some say that the aircraft might have exploded at a high altitude of 35000 odd feet above the sea and in such a case it would be difficult to get any traces so easily. Perhaps this could be accepted for a moment. But the later information confirmed that the aircraft's engines have been working for sever odd hours even after the plane went missing from the radar screens.

The plane's communication systems-transponders- were switched off by some one in its cockpit. That could be a deliberate attempt to hijack the plane from its approved course of travel. But who could have done it?

Who ever had done that and the later piloting of the plane for long hours without getting noticed by the air space watch dogs of several countries should be an expert by any logic.

The news media report that the commander of the plane was an techno-geek whose only interest in life was the technicalities of flying this mammoth of a plane. He had installed a private flight simulator in his home! He knew ins and outs of the air craft he was flying! Perhaps he was a loner!

The majority of the passengers were Chinese. But there were a few from India as well. There are unconfirmed news about a Canadian Indian family of an Indian technocrat who worked as a top executive in the company where I too worked, also on board. 

It is indeed a big trauma for all the near and dear ones of the passengers and the crew members as they wait for any news about their missing ones!

It is now reported that about 26 nations have joined the search activities for the missing plane but so far with no conclusive success. Let us only hope that they would soon succeed in their mission!

But what could have happened?

The hijack theory is now getting some credence. But no one has claimed any responsibility for this act so far. This has become a mystery that is too intriguing even for the aviation experts!

One of the CNN's expert reporters had even theorized about the possibility of the plane flying of its own without even the auto pilot. That could happen when the pilots are incapacitated and some one forcing them to switch off every signalling systems. But in such a case, the plane should have crashed after it went out of fuel. But there is no evidence of such a thing so far.

There are even unconfirmed reports that say of getting some signals from the communication gadgets of some of the passengers after the lapse of the last handshake signal that the air craft had with some of the communication satellites. That shows some slim chances of the aircraft landing some where and the possibility of its passengers safe at least at that time.

From a logical deduction of all the input news, one can deduce about the possibility of the plane being flown by an expert with active help of some others deviating from its normal course in a clandestine manner. But where could it have gone that way?

It is highly improbable that the flight could have headed north, north west or north east as these areas are mostly land areas under the close monitoring of the airspace monitoring radars of several countries. The plane could have then moved south, south west or south east. Had it moved to south west, there are chances that it could have reached the Indian ocean or the Bay of Bengal, some where near the seas around the Andaman and Nicobar islands. This possibility is reported as being checked.

The Times of India reported about such a possibility. I think this is very likely. The Andaman and Nicobar islands are Union Territories of India and consists of 572 islands with an area of 7950 sq.km. Most of these islands either have no human population or are sparingly populated by protected tribes. Most of the islands are separated by sea to the tune of thousands of kilometers and even the Indian authorities have practically very little access to many of them. 

Under such a situation, I am compelled to postulate another theory of my own. It is only a wild wild guess.

Imagine the situation when some expert in the plane commandeered the plane to the Andaman and Nicobar sea with its transponders switched off. They also flew at low altitudes at those critical space where there were possibilities of radar detection. So they avoided radar detection. But perhaps the Indian airspace around the Nicobar islands have possible radar holes or areas where no one constantly monitored the air space, even while the islands have a strong presence of the Indian Air-force. Here the plane flew at low altitude over the seas and perhaps was forced to land on the sea waters adjacent to some isolated uninhabited island.

The majority of people could have swam to the shores of the island near by with the help of the life jackets of the plane. Shortly after wards either the plane was forced to sink to the sea, some one deliberately or it sank by its own fuselage breaking. There could be little chances of any evidence floating on the sea if the plane was forcibly and safely piloted to land on the relatively calm sea surface and later forced to sink.

If the fellows who have done this hijacking landed in a place other than their designated area, it would be difficult for them to get in to touch with their associates immediately. They would also be forcing the live passengers to be hidden behind the greenery of the remote islands for reasons known to them. Some passengers could have tried their advanced cell phones or internet gadgets to communicate but failed due to poor connectivity. Else they might be prevented from doing so.

It is a good idea to scan all the islands of Andaman and Nicobar by the Indian authorities before it is too late. Official request from Malaysia to the Indian authorities for this, is reported. 

Let us hope this mystery would be solved soon even while we realize the world is too big a space to search for a plane.

Let us hope the bereaved would find some solace. 

Let us hope those passengers are alive and they would join back to their beloved ones soon!

You may also read some other media news and speculations about this mystery in the following links:

1. Theories behind MH370 disappearance- MSN News
2. Norwegian ship continue search operations-MSN News
3. Air search expands to remote south of Indian ocean-Google News

Now it appears that the plane had been hijacked to the farthest point in the south as far as the plane could have gone with the fuel it had and crashed in to the remote ocean south of Australia and sank for ever. There are reports of satellites spotting some floating objects which could not be traced and located physically so far even after intensive searches.