The little Fokkers go to war

Propliners guest column continues…

It was the summer of 1971and a war was brewing in South Asia. Pakistan had been created as a Muslim majority country when British India gained independence in 1947, but it was a bifurcated state. East and West Pakistan, though one country, was geographically divided with a large swath of Indian territory between the two halves.That summer, our guest correspondent Ejaz ul Haq had been flying Fokker F27 Friendship twin-turboprop airliners for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), in the Karakoram mountains of West Pakistan. Meanwhile, East Pakistan had been embroiled in what was rapidly becoming a civil war, as rebels tried to secede from Pakistan.

Eventually it all came to a head. And here’s the story in Ejaz’s own words…

In 1971 I was a young Captain flying PIA’s Fokker F27 aircraft based at Chaklala Air Base in Rawalpindi, which is now known as Islamabad International Airport. It had been a glorious summer, and we were busy with our regular flights as well as charters taking tourists to enjoy the breathtaking views of the Karakoram mountains from the vantage point of our cruising aircraft. (See last week’s Propliner column)

In November, as the weather began turning cold, it was becoming clear that war with India was inevitable. Captain Mehmood, PIA’s Chief Pilot, gave me a confidential file with the ‘war plan’ for the airline’s aircraft based at Rawalpindi. Each F27 was assigned a team of pilots, engineers and mechanics. I was the youngest and most junior Captain on the base, but to my surprise was appointed team leader. In case of war, we were to ferry our aircraft to safety in Zahedan (IATA code ZAH), located across the border in the Baluchistan Province of western Iran, where arrangements had been made to receive us.

On the December 2nd 1971, I operated a scheduled flight to Karachi and the next morning, when I picked up the morning newspaper at the hotel, the headline screamed out at me. The Indian Air Force (IAF) had shot down three Pakistan Air Force North American F-86 Sabre jet fighters over East Pakistan, during a daylight low-level ‘dog fight’. The encounter, in full view of thousands, would become known as the ‘Battle of Boyra’.

Related posts:

Hacks are a thing nowadays. At first, I didn’t understand what a hack was or how to use one. Then, my grandkids helped me wrap my head around the concept. “Life hacks are ways to get through life…

Recently I have faced a case while deploying a laravel application with scheduler on kubernetes. The jobs in scheduler needed to access the database but the logs were indicating that the scheduler…

I reach out to you today with heartfelt sincerity and with the full weight of our dedicated team behind me. Firstly, I am excited to share with you some wonderful news. In the coming weeks, we will…