Pics: Praveen Rodrigues
Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai
Media Release

Dubai, Feb 7: A special screening of the movie 'Airlift', based on the evacuation of the stranded Indians in Kuwait, was organized by Air India in Dubai on Friday February 5. Air India had invited community leaders, corporates, retail customers, travel agents and the officials of the Indian Consulate in Dubai for the screening.

Welcoming the gathering, Melwin D’Silva, regional manager, G, ME & A said that it was a pleasure to have all the invitees to share and relive the moments of pride for all Indians especially those in the Gulf, and added that the incident had been depicted well in the movie. Further, he informed that the evacuation in this scale had got Air India in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest evacuation of civilians by a commercial airline.

"Though, being a commercial airline, the primary function of Air India is to take care of the travel needs of the clients, Air India goes the extra mile when the nation looks towards it. The Kuwait evacuation was not the first and may not be the last," he said. He went on to narrate more incidents quoting the Yemen evacuation which, he said, in a scale of 1-10, he would rate it as high as 10 because during the Yemen crisis, Air India flew in to a war zone on an oral assurance from both the conflicting parties. Each day Air India got a window of three hours during which it would fly in to the conflict zone with crew and ground staff on board and evacuate around 6,500 people including the citizens of other 33 countries, he said.

"Air India has always been there when the people of India have needed it, for instance, the earthquake in Gujarat where total Kutch was devastated and the airfield was damaged, and where Air India was of course the first aircraft to land in Bhuj. Air India not only flies you in good times but also at all times whenever India needs it," he added.

While addressing the audience, the Consul General of India mentioned about the controversial hug between Saddam Hussain and the then foreign minister of India I K Gujral during the Gulf War, the goodwill hug that cast a temporary shadow on the career of I K Gujral which led the way for the evacuation of a large number of Indians.

The Consul General of India in Dubai Anurag Bhushan recalled an incident which influenced him to choose his career in diplomacy. He was graduating when the biggest evacuation by India took place. "I do not know what factors pushed me into foreign service, but I am sure this was one of the incidents that helped me make a decision," said Bhushan.

Two Air India pilots, retired Capt D P S Dhillon and Capt Arvind Kathpalia, executive director of operations, who were involved in the operations were felicitated by Bhushan during the event. Capt Dhillon and Capt Kathpalia, who were then pilot and co-pilot respectively, relived the memories while watching the movie.

Capt Dhillon recollected that the scenes of the destruction were very disturbing and they had a hard time handling the large number of people rushing to get back to their home country. Capt Kathpalia recalled that this was the largest evacuation done by the airline which operated several flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Amman.

Melwin D'Silva, regional manager - G, ME & A said that the airline operated 488 flights for 59 days and took almost 110,000 Indians back home.