The Saga of Sunetra Devi— Part 2
Guest column by Roger Thiedeman
In the late 1940s Sri Lanka’s then national airline Air Ceylon was a buoyant outfit. Two years after a quiet start in December 1947, the carrier was making good progress as a domestic, regional, and international carrier.
The latter services, commencing in February 1949, were flown with two Douglas DC-4 Skymaster four-engine airliners in collaboration with privately-owned Australian National Airways (ANA).
The partnership between the Ceylon government and ANA required the Australian company to provide technical and managerial assistance to Air Ceylon. Accordingly, from early 1949 onward, a few Australians occupied senior positions in the Ceylonese airline’s hierarchy, with oversight of domestic and regional operations too. One of them, as Operations Manager, was Captain Peter Gibbes, a pilot with great skill and experience.
But 1949, the year that began well for Air Ceylon, ended unhappily. A few days before Christmas, one of the airline’s four Douglas DC-3 Dakotas crashed in controversial circumstances while landing at the South Indian city then known as Trichinopoly, or ‘Trichy’ for short (Anglicised versions of the authentic name Tiruchirappalli), in the modern state of Tamil Nadu.
The airplane, with registration VP-CAT, was named Sunetra Devi: the same DC-3 that in May of the previous year lost its bearings in stormy skies over Singapore with potentially disastrous consequences (see Part 1 of ‘The Saga of Sunetra Devi’).
In Sunetra Devi’s latest misadventure too there was no loss of life. A few occupants suffered injuries, the most serious being a fractured skull and some broken bones. But the ill-fated DC-3 would never fly again. The remnants of its shattered fuselage were fit only for the scrapheap.
Colombo-Jaffna-Trichinopoly
Sunetra Devi’s final flight began routinely enough on a standard routing to India via Jaffna. Taking off from Colombo’s Ratmalana airport on the morning of Wednesday, December 21, VP-CAT headed for its first stop, Palaly-Kankesanturai (KKS), aerial gateway to Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna Peninsula.
The crew comprised Capt. Dixon Kotelawala, First Officer (co-pilot) Simon Rasiah, Radio Officer Hector Fernando, and air hostess Ranee Ranawake (later Mrs. Ranee Raymond).
After an uneventful turn-around at KKS, Sunetra Devi departed on the next leg for its final destination, Trichy, 55 minutes away. But somewhere en route things began going amiss.
According to subsequent press reports, a passenger claimed that one of the engines “gave trouble soon after the ’plane took off from Jaffna.” This seemed to corroborate Capt. Kotelawala’s subsequent statement that “…. the engine stalled just before the ’plane was to land.”
Nevertheless, as Sunetra Devi commenced its descent into Trichy around 1.30 p.m., it was obvious that all was not well with the DC-3. Another passenger, a regular traveller on that route, said he watched in consternation as, allegedly, the aircraft narrowly escaped collision with Trichy Rock Fort, an 83-metre-high landmark 9 km from the airport.
At Trichy airfield, some observers said the DC-3 appeared to come in too fast. Others stated that the left wing was low, not in a level attitude. But all eyewitnesses agreed that the Dakota touched down heavily, then ‘bounced’ before crashing nose first onto the grass infield. The left landing gear also slammed into the ground and collapsed under the force of impact.
Missing one of its two main wheels, the lopsided Dakota careered along the grass until the drooping left wing dug in and spun the airplane in a sharp 180-degree turn to the left. Meanwhile, the left propeller had broken away. Now, as the crippled aircraft swung around, the right wheel and engine too were wrenched off, ending up some distance from the fuselage. Finally, a battered and broken Sunetra Devi slowed to a halt. A small fire broke out but was quickly extinguished by the airport fire brigade.
The second impact had inflicted horrendous damage to the nose section and cockpit area. Rescuers rushing up to the wreck expected the worst. But miraculously, the flight crew members were alive. Capt. Kotelawala had superficial injuries to his head, chin, and ribs; but Simon Rasiah, the co-pilot, was not so lucky. He had a fractured skull and a broken forearm, requiring hospitalisation.
In the passenger cabin, stewardess Ranee Ranawake sustained a cracked collarbone, and a passenger’s nasal bone was broken.
One eyewitness account claimed that Capt. Kotelawala had leapt out of his seat as soon as the airplane stopped, then ran back into the passenger cabin to open the main door. But not before three passengers had broken open a window, crawled out through the gap, and were trying to open the door from outside so that others could exit.
Post-crash investigation
When news of the crash reached Colombo, another Dakota was despatched from Ratmalana to Trichy. At the controls were Capt. Peter Gibbes and First Officer George Ferdinand, accompanied by the Department of Civil Aviation’s Chief Inspector of Accidents, Ron Godlieb.
Describing the crash scene many years later, Ferdinand recalled that a fuselage panel adjacent to the Radio Officer’s position had been torn off, exposing a gaping hole in the side of the Dakota. When firefighters reached the wreck, they liberally doused Hector Fernando from outside with a mixture of water and foam as he sat stunned in his seat.
The official inquiry into the accident considered the suggestion that Sunetra Devi had experienced engine trouble. Significantly, however, it found that the aircraft was being flown, and the landing conducted, by co-pilot Simon Rasiah; not unusual in any other circumstance.
But Kotelawala, as a recently promoted captain, was not yet authorised to conduct in-flight training, especially not permitting his co-pilots to perform takeoffs and landings.
The Trichy crash was the first of only two ‘hull losses’ for Air Ceylon during its 32-year existence; the second was that of a Hawker Siddeley (Avro) 748 in 1978, destroyed by a bomb while on ground at Ratmalana, but also with no lives lost. For Sunetra Devi, however, it was the end of a busy military and commercial career that had lasted only six years.
Footnote: Capt. Dixon Kotelawala was later appointed Director of Civil Aviation. His cousin, Sir John Kotelawala, a former Minister of Transport and Works, was Prime Minister of Ceylon at the time.
Part 1 of Sunetra Devi’s story is here.
