KASHMIR PRINCESS


It was on 11th April 1955 that 16 people (11 passengers and 5 crew members) lost their lives on board the ill-fated Kashmir Princess, a chartered Lockheed L-749A Constellation, Air India flight 300 from Hong Kong to Djakarta, Indonesia. Flying to the Afro-Asian Bandung conference, the aircraft met with a mid-air bomb explosion and crashed into the South China Sea...

The target in all probability being the Chinese Premier Chou en Lai, who was not on the flight, it was thought to be a Cold War conspiracy to derail the Non-Aligned Movement...

Mr. Rameshwar Nath Kao, the first chief of RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) was entrusted with the task of investigating the plot...

With all 11 lives lost being Chinese nationals, it was evident that an India-owned US-made aircraft crashing into Indonesian waters after taking off from Hong Kong was bound to be caught up in the political crossfire between the UK, Indonesia, the US, India and China...

It took Mr. Kao six months to complete the probe. The crash was the result of the ongoing political rivalry between China and Taiwan, masterminded by ousted Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, the ruler of Taiwan...

Chou Chu, a pro-Kuomintang Taiwanese ground maintenance crew of the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company, was paid 600K HK dollars to plant a time bomb, the then weapon of choice...

Satisfied and appreciative of the investigations, Chou en Lai rewarded Mr. Kao with his personal seal, an honour reserved for outstanding public service in the Chinese republic...

3 crew members, Aircraft Maintenance Engineer A. S. Karnik, 1st Officer Capt. M. C. Dikshit and Navigator J. C. Pathak survived, having drifted onto an uninhabited island...

Captain D. K. Jatar, Flight Engineer K. D'Cunha, Flight Pursers C. D'Souza and J. Pimenta and Air hostess Gloria Berry D'Souza were the unfortunate crew members. Captain Jatar and Gloria who remained till the end, making their supreme sacrifices in the line of duty, were awarded the Ashok Chakra and the Kirti Chakra respectively by the Government of India as a token of bravery...


🙏🙏🌹💐   🇮🇳

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