On July 16 this year, K.S.Mani, a general insurance surveyor residing in Nakshatra Nagar turned 73 years old. But last Friday – on December 9 – he chose to celebrate his 45th birthday! His younger son who lives in Bangalore was puzzled till his father filled in the blank. Mani, a widower, reminded his two sons and a daughter that 45 years ago – on December 9, 1971 – he survived an air crash and got a second lease of life.
Fading memory of the day and a worn out file carrying all papers related to the fateful Trivandrum-Madras flight remind him sparsely and also helped him to cope with emotional aftermath of what it means to be a survivor. The file contains sepia-toned English newspaper clipping of the Avro crash probe, the original tickets of the flight, a black and white photo of his in Government Erskine Hospital when he was visited by celebrity actor of yesteryears Venniradai Nirmala, and all correspondence with Indian Airlines and the Court of Inquiry papers.
“I felt you would like to see these as a proof to know that I am the same person from the crash site,” he tells me as we sit down for a down-memory-lane-chat. But, he further says, I have rarely talked about the day because my wife never liked to hear about it. He lost her to Parkinson’s five years ago. “Six days ago, I was just thinking what a long way I have come after renewing the sense of fragility of life,” he remarks.
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His thoughts go back to the other survivors of the flight. He is not in touch with anybody but wonders whether they are still around. There were total 40 passengers on board along with the crew. And only nine male passengers survived.
Mani was 28 years old and working as mechanical engineer in ISRO’s Space Science & Technology Centre in Trivandrum. It was the year when the Bangladesh Liberation war was on and ISRO had supplied Rohini 100 mini rockets which were found very useful. When there was a demand for more Mani was asked to go to Chennai for emergency purchase of materials.
“It was my maiden plane ride. I was excited to get a window seat on the wing on the right side and in my enthusiasm really tied the seat belt tight and forgot to unfasten it when the sign came up. And that is what saved my life,” he says.
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Mani vaguely remembers, the flight took off shortly after noon and within 15 minutes the weather worsened. “I was so interested in seeing the view from the top that I neither paid attention nor understood the announcement made. I could see only dark clouds. My co-passsenger, a frequent traveller, was explaining we may have hit an air pocket when there was a sudden jolt and I hit my head in the front seat. I cried out my one-year-old daughter and my pregnant wife’s name. Within few minutes, the plane had crashed into trees, tearing off the wing next to me, and nose-dived into the mountain.”
When Mani regained consciousness, he found himself lying on the ground. Another passenger walked past and told him the plane had crash landed and was in pieces. “I felt no pain, no fear. Only thought that crossed my mind was I have seen an accident so close and am lucky to walk away,” he remembers.
One of the passengers who escaped unhurt, was K.K.Nambiar -- the then Registrar of Coperative Societies, Kerala, whose interview appeared in the Kochi edition of The Hindu on May 5, 2003 – who actually walked for an hour to seek help from the tea estates in Meghamalai. He announced the news of the crash to the locals and help was rushed to the accident site and the news became public. Mani was shifted to the Government Hospital in Madurai and treated for fractured cuboid bone in right ankle and foot and other minor injuries. After three weeks of hospitalisation and a month’s bed rest at home, he was back to work in February 1972.
“I tried to quell my post-traumatic stress through my work and consciously killed my fear of flying,” says Mani. It was one more time in 1973 that he boarded a flight from Trivandrum to Delhi to attend a conference and ever since the opportunity or need to take a flight to anywhere has not risen, he points out.
The much reported, probed and talked about incident became part of Mani’s life. “I was not a hero, only a survivor,” he says. “In life we face so many challenges and experience so many struggles. The crash was another challenge I overcame,” he adds.