08 APRIL 2017
BANDRA BUZZ
FEAT
Bandra needs 40 years of the “Ban Close to 40 years ago, on New Year’s Day 1978, Bandra was the setting for one of the worst tragedies until that time. The sad event has, unfortunately and rather surprisingly, been erased from the memories of most ‘Bandraites’. Of course, the younger generation has never even heard about it. Yet, this happened a mere 3 Kms (1.9 miles) off the coast of Bandra, close to what is now the Bandstand Promenade. Preamble On January 1st, 1978, Air India flight AI855 was scheduled to fly between Bombay and Dubai, at around 8:00pm. The flight was due to be operated by a Boeing 747 aircraft named “Emperor Ashoka”, registered VT-EBD, the flagship of Air India’s fleet of all jet aircraft. The flight was operated by experienced Air India pilot Capt. Madan Lal Kukar, and Capt. Indu Virmani, an Indian Air Force veteran. The aircraft also had a flight engineer on board, as variants of the 747 of that time did, Mr. Alfredo Faria. Besides the cockpit crew of 3, the aircraft also carried 20 cabin crew on board. The passenger count on flight AI855 that evening was 190, making it a total of 213 souls on board the “Emperor Ashoka”. The “Emperor Ashoka”, VT-EBD Air India’s first Boeing 747 “Jumbo Jet” was built at the Boeing factory in Seattle, Washington in 1971. She was delivered to Air India in May of that year, received at Santa Cruz by none other than the late great J.R.D. Tata, then Chairman of Air India. As was common with 747s of that era, her upper deck featured no passenger seats, but rather a luxurious lounge for first class passengers, fashioned in typical ‘70s style, with a bar, et all. Indian art murals covered her interior walls of the upper deck lounge, and lower passenger deck. She was a symbol of India’s modernity, the first “Jumbo Jet” to come home. Air India had decided to name their Boeing 747s after Indian emperors, and the first bore the name of perhaps the greatest of them all, Ashoka, the source for our national symbols, the “chakra” and the “three-lion stupa”. The Tragedy At around 8:12pm the aircraft took off from Santa Cruz airport. About 101 seconds later, she had made a steep left bank, and impacted the waters off the coast of Bandra. Seconds into the
flight, a key instrum deck, the Attitude (ADI) malfunctione craft was level in fli indicated to the pilo ing right. In order to the Capt. Kukar and tiated a left bank, were straightening the complete and the Arabian Sea ah pilots were unable This spatial disor caused them to beli straightening out, w ally flying left, into t struck the sea with i past the vertical, an a 35 degree angle. T destruction.
Controversy The official cause said to be “instru spatial disorientatio minor controversy. Rock hotel said tha loud explosion that in the card room”. dent, a certain Nam claimed to have see down into the sea, on board a naval sh seen an explosion fueled rumors that t exploded, before it at that time, the t President Jimmy C (paying a state visit further fueled consp
Aftermath There were no surv on board were lost Bodies and debris o recovered over the n of the aircraft had b as far as Alibag. All o spotlight, being the then India’s worst (a world) air accident,
A Personal Connec The “Emperor Asho years old when she India pilot, my late the aviators that fle period. As a child, opportunity to fly times, with my siste experience the luxu and upper deck lou