How Air India Carried Out the 1990 Airlift of Indians From Kuwait

The Invasion

It was 13 August 1990, I got a call from the movement control department saying that there is an emergency, be prepared to report to duty for 3-4 days in Amman. I was ready to go, little knowing that what I was going into was going to be so shocking.

Rita Pradeep Nair, Retired Cabin Crew, Indian Airlines

Rita Pradeep Nair was a cabin crew member in the erstwhile Indian Airlines, which later merged with the Air India. After the emergency call, she packed a bag with all her essentials. Leaving her two-and-half-year-old daughter in Bombay, she left, unaware that she was going to be a part of the world’s largest evacuation drive that rescued 1,70,000 Indians from Kuwait.

Akshay Kumar’s latest movie Airlift has brought the 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait, an episode that went largely unnoticed, back in the news.

Sheemin Merchant, an Air India cabin crew member and her colleagues checked in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kuwait, only a night before it was invaded. Her three-day layover at the hotel became an 18-day ordeal. “We were like prisoners in the hotel. We couldn’t go out or do anything,” she said.

My supervisor literally ran in saying that Kuwait had been invaded. I didn’t believe him. I thought he was joking. We drew back the curtains and realised that he wasn’t. The troop movement was on and we could see a lot of Kuwaitis packing up and running away.

Sheemin Merchant, Retired Cabin Crew, Air India

Sheemin and her crew contacted the embassy and were told that they were not in priority as they were too few. After 18 days they got a clearance from Foreign Minister IK Gujral, and were finally driven to Baghdad via Basra.

It had been 17 hours and we were all packed inside the vanity van which didn’t have chairs to sit. We were travelling in the dark and the driver lost the way and strayed into an Iraqi military camp. Suddenly the lights went on and the soldiers emerged from the camps. Luckily, the crew’s first officer knew some Arabic. He told them that we were Indians. When they heard that, they said “Shashi Kapoor! Amitabh Bachchan!” Those two names opened the doors for us, literally.

Sheemin Merchant, Retired Cabin Crew, Air India

The Evacuation

Meanwhile, Air India was leading the evacuation drive. Retired Captain Waghmare who was with (then) Indian Airlines said, “We would pick up passengers from Jordan, bring them to Dubai and from there they were flown by another crew to Mumbai.”

“Evacuees came to Amman in buses and vans from Kuwait and Iraq. It was a sea of people, and they just ran towards the aircraft when they spotted it. It was difficult for us. Everyone wanted to get into the plane as they were all scared for their life,” he said.

But such flights are rewarding.

Passengers had a huge smile on their face when they saw the aircraft which had come to take them back home. It was like a lost child returning to its mother.

Rita Pradeep Nair, Retired Cabin Crew, Indian Airlines

“After arriving at the Bombay airport, they thanked us profusely. They wouldn’t stop. Even though it was a difficult process, but it felt good. We were happy at the fact that we could do something for the country,” Waghmare said.