AVIATION EXPERT

 

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

15/VI/2025

 

I am no war or an aviation expert but suffice to say, I was in a profession where war and fighting terrorists was the ultimate test of my very existence in service. Let me leave it at that for the time being.

 

We all have been shaken by the tragic accident of the Air India crash in Ahmedabad. My deepest condolences to every family affected by the tragedy of humongous proportions. Let the experts do their job and find out the truth. Let us assist in whatever way we can. The best way is to just be silent and keep all the departed souls and injured in our prayers.

 

Media does not want answers, it only wants to sensationalise the issue by asking questions to aviators based on conjectures and speculations. Like hawks, they are waiting for one slip up from one expert to then go all guns blazing.

 

Shoving mikes in the people’s mouths, who are broken beyond words and taking their reactions is so heartbreaking and sad. But they don’t mind and do it shamelessly and repetitively. If someone knew how to avoid this mishap, he would have gone all out to do his best.

 

If the pilots knew that this would be the fate of theirs and their passengers, I am sure they would have never flown it. No pressure from anyone could make them take such a risk of jeopardizing the lives of so many on board and the unfortunate on ground.

 

Given a choice, the media has already tuned our minds to believe who the culprits are. In the meanwhile, Israel attacked Iran, so some attention got diverted towards that side. Now they are digging with a fine-tooth comb, how did Israel get such detailed intelligence about Iran. Media has the answers.

 

Be that as it may. One cannot bring those lives back. But in hindsight I can only recall how big an aviation expert I have been since childhood.

 

Planes always fascinated me and the love for aircrafts started very early in life. However, I landed up in the Army instead of the Air Force.

 

One tested his first aircraft in class five. An aircraft made from a page of a note book. Mind you, a fresh or a new page always made better aircrafts. An old page or a page from a rough notebook was never considered to be ideal for this flying machine.

 

The edges were equally folded and twisted. At one place they were locked. Once ready, the wings were smoothened between the fingers till the flaps lay flat. A stage would come when fuel was filled in it. It was nothing but two long puffs of air from our mouth in its rear end. Our plane used to be ready to fly.

 

The good part was that it never crashed, it just glided and landed. We would run to recover it, clean it of dirt, fill fuel again and keep flying it measuring the longest distance it would go to declare the winner of the aeroplane flying contest. Sometimes we could climb the roof of our house to see how far it could go. Then tweak the adjustments like experts to make it fly the farthest. By the way we made paper boats too.

 

In class VIII, I joined the Aeromodelling club in school. We used to make models out of ‘Balsa’ wood which was the lightest one had ever handled. Then stick parchment paper to cover its wing and fuselage. There were small two stroke propeller engines which were attached with ‘thinner’ as its fuel. By joe, they used to be fun assembling. Smelling thinner was addictive.

 

A design/blueprint would be spread on the table and ‘aeronautical engineers’ like yours truly would get onto the assembly line. None of the models which one made flew the distance. They all crashed a few meters from the start point, just like the Ahmedabad flight.

 

Was it the flaps, landing gear, heavy nose, too much fuel, conspiracy by another fellow student, inadequate checks, novice flier like me, gravity, inaccuracy in design and construct, insect hit, engine failure and what have you. They took off and crash landed every time.

 

All of us would sit and join our heads to discuss what went wrong. The poor Aero model didn’t have any black box or flight data recorder. It was just a hand made model of an aircraft which flew only if you were lucky.

 

Finally, I promised to get everything right. A new model box was opened and assembled but then I went to NDA. Which pilot flew that aircraft, I cannot say.

 

Was he successful or he too blamed the one who assembled it and called himself an aviation expert? I wonder!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

©® NOEL ELLIS