Several airlines have landed, taken off or disappeared from Calcutta over the past 50 years. But one thing that has stood the test of time is the Air Crew Club, India’s one and only recreational centre for air crew, managed and run by pilots.
Even those wonderful men in their flying machines need space on terra firma to unwind. From pilots who flew Dakotas and Caravelles to those who fly modern Boeings and Airbuses, the Air Crew Club has invited them all to its fold over the past five decades.
Situated at 53F, Chowringhee Road, the club celebrates its golden jubilee on Saturday, when several founder-members are expected to turn up and recall those good old days. Also present will be the 70-odd ordinary and associate members.
“The origins of the club go back to the early 1950s, when Calcutta was the nucleus of Indian aviation,” said Captain S.L. Bagchi, one of the earliest members. “It was just after the various airlines, like Bharat Airways, Airways India, Kalinga Airways and Himalayan Airways, among others, were amalgamated and nationalised to form Indian Airlines.”
The Calcutta-based members of the Indian Airlines Pilots’ Association, the parent body of the present-day Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association, had approached B.C. Mukherjee, the first chairman of the airline, for a place where pilots and other air crew could meet for gatherings, along with their families,” elaborated Bagchi. Among those who took the first initiatives was Captain R.S. Randhawa, who died recently.
Mukherjee agreed, and offered that IAC would pay two-thirds of the rent of the premises. “At first, we set up the club at a two-room section in Barlow House, on Chowringhee,” said Captain B.D. Bhagwagar, the first treasurer of the club.
“But the place was too small and we searched various addresses, including Karnani Mansion, above Blue Fox. We finally settled for 53F, Chowringhee, which was then owned by Talbot & Co., for a rent of Rs 600,” Bhagwagar added. “I remember Biju Patnaik, chairman of Kalinga Airways, donated our first refrigerator,” he recounted.
The club was primarily open to pilots, co-pilots, flight engineers, radio officers (now extinct), stewards and air-hostesses.
“The inaugural ball was a grand affair, with air crew from BOAC also taking part. In fact, a number of foreign airlines crew members, who used to stay over at Grand Hotel or Great Eastern, made it a point to drop by at the club,” Bhagwagar recalled.
The club today has opened up in a limited way to outsiders who are not connected with any airlines. “We have a select number of doctors and professors, who are associate members with no voting rights,” said Captain M.K. Singh, present secretary of the club. Indian Airlines’ regional director is the ex-officio president.
After hours of flying and negotiating various types of weather and tail winds, the crew of a number of city-based flights has a chance to relax at the club with a game of billiards or darts and a drink or two. The much-needed interactions, too, take place at the get-togethers organised once every two months. “The number of flights from the city may have decreased over the years, but this aspect is still the envy of pilots based at other centres in the country,” Singh said proudly.
