Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

War hero feels aviation is ‘very safe’

HYDERABAD: Eighty two-year-old war hero Barney Fernandes believes that aviation in the present day was “very safe”, thanks to the rapid development of technology in the sector.

Wing Commander Fernandes, who served the Indian Air Force in the 50s and had flown Jawaharlal Nehru over Ladakh, is closely connected with the Gandhi-Nehru family and is currently settled in Western Australia where he runs a major pilot training school. He has been involved in pilot training for the last 41 years.

Sharing the dais at an interaction session on ‘Indian aviation, scaling new heights’ as part of India Aviation 2008 here on Thursday, the Wing Commander recalled a conversation he had with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during a visit to the latter’s house after the death of his brother Sanjay Gandhi in an air crash.

The Wing Commander said he had asked Rajiv Gandhi how Sanjay got killed. After a pause, Rajiv Gandhi replied “poor training” (Sanjay Gandhi was flying the airplane that crashed).

Picking the thread from the conversation, Wing Commander Fernandes deplored that pilot training was the most neglected area in aviation.

Without referring to India, he said the Government spent nothing on training pilots. No one in the bureaucracy gave a serious thought to training.

On the other hand, the Western Australian Government accepted a proposal by him to integrate pilot training with formal education. He praised Australia as an aviation dependent country.

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