The absence of certain things which were once near us but never so dear makes us miss their presence the most when it’s gone. The Kolkata airport is soon to bid farewell to a vintage aircraft that etched its name in the history of India’s military aviation.

It is only a matter of time before the vintage Dakota DC-3 aircraft that once belonged to Kalinga Airlines is taken away from Kolkata airport to Odisha where it will be placed near the statue of Biju Patnaik, at the Bhubaneswar airport.

The Odisha government has announced it requested the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to bring back its iconic Dakota plane that belonged to Biju Patnaik, former chief minister of Odisha and owner of Kalinga Airlines, who used it “to rescue former Indonesia Vice-President and then Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir from the Dutch military back in 1947.” Patnaik was a pilot in the Royal Indian Air Force.

The Kolkata airport director, Mr C. Pattabhi said, “It’s a vintage aircraft that was parked here in the old parking bay area for years. Talks were on to take it to Odisha before but the pandemic stalled it. The Dakota isn’t in a flying condition
and may be taken by road after dismantling. However, the agency responsible for ferrying it is yet to discuss their plans with us.”

Bengal’s link with the iconic Dakota planes, however, goes long back. Sources in the Indian Air Force (IAF), said it was at least 22 Dakota DC-3 aircraft along with Antonov-12s and C-119 ‘Packets’ that took off from airbases in and around Kolkata and para-dropped a battalion of 800 infantrymen and equipment at Tangail during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

Further, the Hasimara Air Force Station in Alipurduar district that is soon to house the advanced multirole fighter Rafale jets was started as a private airstrip used by Kalinga Air and housed the Dakotas. Hasimara later had Hunters and Mig-21 fighters.

The erstwhile Kalinga Airlines had 18 Dakotas. Of these, 12 are completely damaged. One is kept at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport, one at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai while the Indonesian government has kept one.

An IAF official said, “The Dakota DC-3 is a fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft with the tail wheel-type landing gear. It was the workhorse of most of the airlines and certainly the widest used aircraft. With a cruise speed of 333 km/hour and range of 2400 km, it revolutionised air transport in the 1930s and 1940s.”

“On 24 May 1948, then wing commander Mehar Singh was the first to land a DC-3 at a height of 11,550 ft in Leh, flying an unchartered route at 25,000 ft with little experience of high altitude landing during that period. Dakotas could operate from short runways. Inducted into the No.12 squadron of IAF, these were successfully used in the 1947 Kashmir operation, 1962 Chinese aggression and in 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak conflict. They were in service from 1946 and finally phased out in 1998.”