Back in the age of no-internet, sharing information wasn't so swift and easy. Well, we are saying this in the context of Akshay Kumar starrer Airlift, which has been doing wonders at the box office! Raja Krishna Menon could have never made this blockbuster, had the evacuation not been there in the coveted Guinness World Records.
So how did Air India manage to get into the Guinness Book of World Records?
"Since it wasn't the era of Google which enables one to source information easily, I walked from my office in Air India building to the book store in Eros cinema complex near Churchgate in Mumbai; picked up a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records to access the address of the editor or the publisher of Guinness book. Armed with the address, I posted (email did not exist then!) a letter to Guinness Editor enquiring if any record of evacuation by a civil airliner existed?" says Jitendra Bhargava, retired executive director of Air India, who was heading the Public Relations Department of the carrier back in the 1990.
A fortnight later, he received a reply from the office of Guinness Book of World Records that they had no such record in their book. "In the meantime, evacuation continued at a brisk pace with Air India deploying as many aircraft as possible and Indian Airlines and Indian Air Force extending a helping hand with their aircraft to bolster capacity to meet the growing demand. After the evacuation operation was completed, I sent a comprehensive letter to Guinness providing details of total number of passengers carried, flights operated, duration of the entire exercise along with other details," he recalls.
01/02/16 Purba Das/Business Insider
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So how did Air India manage to get into the Guinness Book of World Records?
"Since it wasn't the era of Google which enables one to source information easily, I walked from my office in Air India building to the book store in Eros cinema complex near Churchgate in Mumbai; picked up a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records to access the address of the editor or the publisher of Guinness book. Armed with the address, I posted (email did not exist then!) a letter to Guinness Editor enquiring if any record of evacuation by a civil airliner existed?" says Jitendra Bhargava, retired executive director of Air India, who was heading the Public Relations Department of the carrier back in the 1990.
A fortnight later, he received a reply from the office of Guinness Book of World Records that they had no such record in their book. "In the meantime, evacuation continued at a brisk pace with Air India deploying as many aircraft as possible and Indian Airlines and Indian Air Force extending a helping hand with their aircraft to bolster capacity to meet the growing demand. After the evacuation operation was completed, I sent a comprehensive letter to Guinness providing details of total number of passengers carried, flights operated, duration of the entire exercise along with other details," he recalls.
01/02/16 Purba Das/Business Insider
