Chance Tragedy presents City Photographer a rare opportunity

This story was handed over to me by the photographer himself after he returned to Bhopal from bone chilling experience of witnessing the worst ever helicopter crash in the history of Switzerland. Sanjay Jain who runs the Central Colour lab in Bhopal and with whom I was associated with to process my official film and make prints during my stint with Hindustan Times, spoke to me as to how he gave his own death a slip by five minutes.

A chance tragedy got an amateur City photographer a picture of his lifetime – some-thing even professional would trade their right hands for.
The rare accident had two helicopters crashing into each other in mid-air at Nandez Valley in Switzerland. Seven Indians and a Swiss national were killed. It was the first and the worst crash witnesses in the history of Switzerland aviation.
And Sanjay Jain, proprietor of Central Colour Lab, who recorded the incident for posterity, had taken a sortie in one of the choppers just minutes before they collided.
He says the sorties started with one chopper. Another was added mid-way to facilitate the first to go on another assignment. After a few rounds, the second chopper asked for reinforcement as there were many people waiting for their rides.
As the third one approached for landing, it crashed into the second chopper, which had taken off from the spot. The choppers collided 15 to 20 meters above the ground and 150 meters away from Sanjay’s lens.
Sanjay says just the prospect of framing both the approaching choppers prompted him to click the photo. Little did he realize that split seconds later they would crash into each other?
Himself a versatile photographer, Sanjay from his childhood had a knack of appreciating good images.
His own sortie had just taken five minutes. And Sanjay sys “I enjoyed every second of it.” Air Glaciers – a private Swiss company ran the helicopters.
As for his trip to Switzerland, Sanjay says it was organized by the Kodak Company to felicitate the buyers of photographic materials and sellers of cameras and films in the country.
They were first taken to Germany to take part in the world’s biggest photographic event called Photokina – the world’s best photographic technology exhibition.
The groups of Kodak representatives, on their way back, to India were taken to Switzerland, for a two day lay-off after their hectic schedule.
Sanjay adds contrary to what he had heard of efficiency in the West, the rescue operation at the accident site were woefully lacking. The sorties themselves were from a local football ground. There were no precautionary measures in attendance – no ambulance or fire tenders.
Besides the place was very far from Sion- the main city. Sanjay and the others there took the bodies out of the choppers, since the rescue team reached 40 minutes late. To top it all, the Swiss doctors who came after hour displayed what could be called reluctance to examine the bodies.
Meanwhile, three other Indians who were injured are recovering in Switzerland.
As for Sanjay he says he is game for more such rides, any day.

Air Carshes - A Sordid Tale

After working for nearly 20 years in the newspaper industry, covering air crashes are the worst for any photojournalist. Though I have covered about 6 air crashes so far the one which I covered in Bangalore of the Air bus A 320 crash outside the Bangalore Airport wall in 1990 and later the Mid-air collision between the Saudi Arabian Airways and the Kazakhstan flight at Charki Dadri in Haryana in 1996 are the worst reminders of my crash coverage's which also keeps giving me nightmares to date.
What most people's perception of news photojournalist is that they are heartless and are emotionless people. If one as look it from the photojournalist's point of view at the end of the day he ensures that the whole world gets a first hand view of the accident.
I have been asked by hundreds of people whom I have come across these two decades of work asking me the same question, Are you heartless?
Well not so. Photojournalists are humans too and they do have a heart which does cry many a times behind a veiled curtain away from the preying eyes of society. Photojournalists become a subject of ridicule even by their fellow writing journalists who are named reporters, subeditors and many more such fancy designations of late, even after he gives them various leads in their scores of stories which they wistfully claim to be theirs.
Well lets us get back to crashes which gives me nightmares and why so, the first air crash of the A-320 in Bangalore made me cry as I noticed the charred remains of the passengers and more so of an two year old child who’s body was carried with bare hands by an firefighter. I covered the accident for three days, from the site to the mortuary and departure of the coffins to their respective destinations.
At the end of each day I looked at the published pictures which made me cry more and hit the booze bottle early in the day. This was one way of hiding my human side but ensuring that my paper had the best images on a daily basis. Which any good news photojournalists will agree too.

The Bangalore Air Bus A 320 Crash


The Site with the mangled remains along with charred beyond recognition of the victims in the Air Bus A 320 crash outside the HAL Bangalore airport on 14th February, 1990.
The plane, an Airbus 320 delivered to the national domestic carrier on Dec. 24, 1989, was carrying 135 passengers, 4 additional passengers who were infants not assigned seats and a crew of 7 at the time of the crash.


The Charki Dadri Mid Air Collision

The 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision occurred on 12 November 1996 when Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 (SV 763), a Boeing 747-168B en route from New Delhi, India, to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, collided in mid-air with Air Kazakhstan Flight 1907 (9Y 1907), an Ilyushin Il-76 en route from Shymkent, Kazakhstan to New Delhi, over the village of Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, India. All 349 people on board both flights were killed, making it the deadliest mid-air collision to date.

These two air crashes were covered by me for the Times of India and The Hindustan Times respectively during my stint with them.