Where were you when…?

For my part, the question was always “Where were you when Kennedy was killed?” The answer: I was in a Douglas DC-3 flying from Freeport to Miami.

When the Bahamas became an independent country, I was living and working in West Berlin, Germany, surrounded by that infamous wall. The Bahamas had survived, but not yet recovered from, the traumatic experience of the voluntary liquidation of Bahamas Airways Ltd and its effect on travel to/from and within the Bahamas.

I was one of 75 out-of-work pilots. The non-Bahamians sped off to other airlines around the world. The Bahamians took whatever jobs they could find here in the country. Out Island Airways rose to the challenge and hired some Bahamians, but would not touch anyone who had been an executive in the Bahama Islands Airline Pilots Association. We liked to think of ourselves as an association but, legally we were a trade union.

Flying for Flamingo Airlines was the worst experience of my flying career. Up to that point I enjoyed flying so much that I never thought of it as work.

To take a break from freelance flying, I took a trip to Germany and ended up in West Berlin, where I was hired by Modern Air Transport, an American charter airline, to fly Convair 990A, powered by four jetengines. Apart from the supersonic Concorde, the 990 was the fastest civilian airliner in the world.

Only American, British and French citizens were allowed to pilot an airplane to/from/in West Berlin. When I joined, I was travelling on a British/Bahama Islands passport, which seemed to raise no eyebrows.

In June of 1973, the Bahamas government bought shares in Out Island Airways and changed the name to Bahamasair.

For me, all was well with the world and I was happy flying Germans to the vacation spots of Europe and the Canary Islands, and Turks to and from Turkey.

When I walked into Modern Air’s dispatch office, on the afternoon of July 10, I was thrilled to hear the dispatcher on duty greeting and congratulating me on my country having become independent.

The handwriting was on the wall. In the not-too-distant future I would have to exchange my ‘British’ passport for a Commonwealth of the Bahamas one. Until then, I could fly in Berlin.

In September, Captain Henry Pyfrom, chief pilot of Bahamasair, phoned to offer me a job as a captain with Bahamasair, the new nation’s flag carrier.

I jumped on Modern Air’s flight to Klagenfurt, took a bus to Luxembourg, and my friends at International Air Bahama flew me home, in time to start my new job on October 1, 1973.

• For questions and comments, please send an e-mail to islandairman@gmail.com

Animal matters Kim Aranha

Introducing OP ‘24!

As many of you know, we have far too many unwanted stray and roaming dogs and cats in this country. This is primarily because the average animal owner is irresponsible and allows their animals to roam as the animal wishes. This is not ideal from several reasons: the animal could get hit by a car or hurt in a fight and you will never know about it, and secondly, the animal, if not already spayed and neutered, will end up being a part of the overpopulation problem.

Recently, an alliance of the Bahamas Humane Society, Baark and Animal Balance, with the support and participation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources, VMAB and the Ministry of Tourism, was excited to announce that after a ten-year hiatus, Operation Potcake is back to help get a handle on the vast numbers of unwanted dogs and cats being born yearly over-populating the island of New Providence and causing so much suffering.

OP ’24 (Operation Potcake 2024) will be from January 17–28. These dates include set-up and break-down days.

Operation Potcake is an intensive spay and neuter programme taking place right here on New Providence. There will be four large clinics set up in the “hotspots” of the island where most of roaming dog populations are located.

It has been proven over and over again that spay and neuter is the only reliable method to reduce the animal population in a lasting manner. Though some people who are lacking in knowledge frequently suggest euthanasia as a solution, we can confidently tell those rather unkind and uninformed people that they are, unequivocally wrong!

The OP ’24 project will last over a period of 10 days in Nassau and the objective is to spay and neuter a minimum of 3,200 animals during the course of that time. We also hope that