Jammu villager flies coolly on a `hot' Antarctica expedition

Jammu villager flies coolly on a `hot' Antarctica expedition
SAMEER BHASIN

JAMMU, MARCH 18: ``Many live on the edge, I only wish to step over it.'' These words came true for Flight Lieutenant Kamal Singh as he went on to become the first Indian to skydive over the South Pole from 16,000 feet above the sea level.

Singh also hoisted the tri-colour at Antarctica after 45 seconds of free fall from the chopper thus doing justice to his four years of extensive training.

A resident of Gajansoo village, 25 km from here, Singh arrived here after performing the superlative feat. On Friday, as he stepped out of the train at the Jammu-Tawi Railway Station, excited relatives and friends immediately surrounded him and sent in a barrage of question about the Antarctica expedition. With tears welling in her eyes, Singh's mother, however, locked him in a tight embrace.

Reminiscing about his adventure, Singh said,``Temperature was below minus 30 degrees on January 1 at Punta, the day we had to go for the final jump. It was summer season. Antarctica had seen its last sunrise on September 22, 1999. The weather was prefect for skydiving with wind blowing at a speed of four to five knots per hour. The sun was shinning brightly.''

He said there were 35 participants in the expedition, including Bob Christ, president of Forum Expeditions USA; his wife Karen, Nathaile Chudiak, Mous Olphen (both from Holland) and Walter from California. ``About 37 more including hot air baloonists, doctors, scientists, intellectuals, camera crew and a couple of observers were also to be seen,'' he informed.

He said the participants had started reaching Santiago in Chile from December 20 onwards. ``I reached on December 23. When all of us arrived, practice jumps were carried out and the minutest details discussed. There was no scope for any error. After the practice jumps, the team moved to Punta Arenas, a city in southern part of Chile. From here, we moved towards our base -- the Antarctica -- on December 31. It was 6.30 pm according to the Chile Standard Time.''

``By 11 pm, we were at the point from where the final jump was to be taken,'' Singh said, adding,``We finally jumped and I had a free fall for 45 seconds. I had sufficient time to think and get ready to operate the parachute which I opened on reaching 3,000 feet above the ground level. While enjoying the free-fall, the speed was close to 200 km per hour.''

Son of a retired Army officer, Singh said he got motivated on hearing about the achievements of Squadron Leader Sanjay Thapar, who was the first Indian to have skydived over North Pole on April 26, 1996.

``Though I was a parachute jump instructor at that time, I was too young in the game. I had only static line jumps to my credit then and was yet to graduate to the next category in parachuting: skydiving,'' he said.

``It was at an early stage that I vowed to myself that I'll be the first Indian to skydive over the South Pole,'' he said, adding ``At that time I had not even touched a free-fall parachute not to talk of jumping with it.''

``However, in times to come, I learnt a lot from Thapar, who was posted as the chief instructor at the Paratroopers Training School, where I was serving as an instructor,'' he said.

On how he came into Air Force, Singh said he graduated in 1989 from GGM Science College, here and took admission in MA English in Jammu University. ``I was in the first semester when I got admission in Officers Training Academy, Chennai. However, after two months, I also received call letter from Air Force Headquarter asking me to join Air Force Academy.''

Singh said he has nearly 500 jumps to his credit: ``I attribute my success to my mother, wife and Mata Vaishno Devi. And, of course to the training and inspiration that came from my father, Major Taa Chand (retd), who also was a paratrooper,'' he said.