Alumini

Rajiv Gandhi returned to India in 1966, the year his mother became prime minister. He went to Delhi and became a member of the Flying Club, where he trained as a pilot. In 1970, he was employed as a pilot by Indian Airlines. He was employed by the Indian Airlines (now Air India) as pilot on domestic routes. He usually flew on Delhi-Jaipur route and, earned a monthly Rs 5,000. His mother, Indira Gandhi was the prime minister of the country then. Yet, he had no qualms in earning his salary as a pilot. In a TV interview, Rajiv Gandhi later said he enjoyed flying as it gave him "freedom" and took him away from routine life.

Biju Patnaik was educated at Ravenshaw College in Odisha but, due to his interest in aviation, dropped out and trained as a pilot. Patnaik flew with private airlines but at the start of the Second World War he joined the Royal Indian Air Force. He eventually became the head of air transport command.

Biju Patnaik was hailed as a hero in Indonesia. Patnaik was conferred Indonesia’s ‘Bintang Jasa Utama’ award for the heroic role he had played when Dutch colonialists had tried to gain control over the country in 1947. An ace pilot who had started training at the Delhi Flying Club in 1930, had joined the Royal Indian Air Force in 1936. Patnaik played a significant role in the Indian freedom struggle. He had air-dropped leaflets on the Quit India Movement for Indian soldiers fighting against Myanmar as part of the British Indian armed forces.

He also helped ferry freedom fighters from one place to another during the Independence struggle. It was also during this time that he became friends with Jawaharlal Nehru. The former Odisha CM had also founded the Kalinga Airlines that operated the Dakota planes in the early years of Independence. These planes played a significant role in Indonesia. In 1953, Kalinga Airlines merged with the Indian Airlines. Indonesia was freed from Dutch rule in 1945, after which Indonesia’s first President Sukarno along with its Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir formed an independent government in the country. However, the year after, in 1946, the Dutch started invading Indonesia again and launched a full-fledged attack in July 1947.

The Dutch army had put Sjahrir under house arrest in Jakarta. Patnaik was asked by Nehru to fly Sjahrir and then vice-president Mohammad Hatta out of Java so they could broadcast Indonesia’s plight to the rest of the world. Patnaik, along with his wife Gyana Devi, reached Jakarta on 21 July 1947. On his way from Singapore to the Java Islands, the Dutch had threatened to shoot down his aircraft, but nothing stopped him. He safely flew Sjahrir and Hatta to Singapore, and on to India.In 1950, the Indonesian government rewarded Patnaik with a piece of forest land and a palatial building but he did not accept the offer. He was also given an honorary citizenship of Indonesia and awarded the ‘Bhoomi Putra’, a recognition rarely granted to a foreigner. According to Peristiwab Heroik 29 Juli, 1947, a book compiled by the Sub-Service of History, Public Relations and Media Directorate of the Indonesian Air Force, Patnaik had travelled to Indonesia in 1947 for more than two weeks to train pilots in the country.