City’s Sea Hawk ready to take visitors

Perched atop a washed-out pedestal on the Jawahar Bal Bhavan premises, the Sea Hawk sat lonely in the open till 2006, enduring rain and sun.

Many wondered why the bird, which was in the squadron that bombed the Chittagong port in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, was so neglected. But Blessen Siby from Thiruvalla chose to write to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam demanding that the war veteran be given its due.

The President’s office immediately wrote to the State Chief Secretary asking him to look into the matter. However, the government acted on it only in 2016 and decided to build a roof, a fence, and a small garden with a footpath. The maintenance of the Sea Hawk was directly undertaken by the Indian Navy.

Renovation over, the newly done-up UK-made single-seater fighter aircraft was thrown open for public view on Monday. A.K. Balan, Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and Law, dedicated the static display of the aircraft to the Jawahar Bal Bhavan in the presence of Rear Admiral R.J. Natkarni, Chief of Staff, Southern Naval Command.

In 1980, the aircraft was given to the Bal Bhavan by the Navy after it was decommissioned. Before shifting it, the Navy had shifted an amphibious bird, installed by them earlier in 1971 on Bal Bhavan premises, to the Naval Museum.