SINGAPORE - Some 130 former crew members who used to work for Singapore Airlines (SIA) or its predecessor, Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (MSA), attended a soiree at the Singapore Cricket Club on April 28.
Among those who attended were cabin and cockpit crew members who used to work for the airlines before 1980, some of whom had flown in from countries such as the United States, Australia, Japan and Malaysia.
Mr J.Y. Pillay, 90, who was SIA chairman from 1972 to 1996, and Dr Cheong Choong Kong, 82, SIA’s chief executive from 1996 to 2003, also attended the gathering.
MSA was the multinational flag carrier for Malaysia and Singapore from 1966 to 1972. It ceased operations in 1972 when both governments decided to set up their own national airlines, which was when SIA was born.
The gathering – the second of its kind – was organised by former crew member Ravinder Pal, 76, who joined MSA in 1969. He later left SIA in 1984 and started his own company, PalVision Corporation, which does artificial intelligence-centric hospitality solutions.
Mr Ravinder was also behind the first former MSA and SIA crew gathering in 2019.
“We all should get together while we can and are still alive. We are not getting any younger. (Pioneer SIA pilot) Captain Winkie Ho passed on earlier this year on Jan 6. Make merry while we still can. If we are okay, we will do another one next year,” he said.
Known affectionately as Winkie Ho, Captain Ho Weng Toh was one of the last surviving members of a group of World War II pilots dubbed the Flying Tigers.
He died on Jan 6 at the age of 103.
Captain Ho joined the now-defunct Malayan Airlines in 1951 and became a founding pilot of Singapore Airlines. He retired in 1980 as chief pilot of SIA’s Boeing 737 fleet.
