Salvage To Safety Lessons

Little information available on salvage. World renowned insurance institutes - the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) of UK, the CPCU of US, The Insurance Institute of India (III) - none have courses on salvage. Couple of institutes in US offer distance learning program on salvage. Reading the program content informs us that they are talking of existing industry practices on salvage, no more.

We are developing web content for Bhadrat and no reference material of use is available. The office suddenly asks…” Sir! we need to finish the website content work. We need immediately a short write up on salvage to safety lessons”! Though qualified professional, my mind goes blank. What to write on salvage to safety?

A small news in Times of India caught attention! It deals with Indian Airlines’ (IA) plane crash in 1988. A Bombay to Ahmedabad IA flight crashed due to defective instruments at the Sardar Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad on October 19, 1988. Everyone aboard died but for 2 unfortunate people - Mr. Ashok Agarwal and Mr. Vinod Rewa Shankar Tripathi. At the time of crash, Mr. Ashok Agarwal was 28 years old, looking forward for life, married to a beautiful wife and having an angle like daughter. His wife was 22 years and daughter 1-year-old. Entire family wiped out but for Mr. Agarwal. Many expensive and time consuming investigations conducted, court cases fought, compensations paid but life of Mr. Agarwal never again bloomed. On 8 th March, 2020, at the age of 61, Mr. Agarwal died a lonely, pitiable death in his flat in Ahmedabad. His body was lying in flat for over a week. Foul smell, maggots, decomposed body - municipal authorities & hospitals swung into action; determined heart attack was the cause of death.

Mr. Agarwal never returned to normalcy. He lost memory, went to US for hip replacement surgery… with thoughts of wife and daughter, business never took off. His was a cursed life…it would have been a blessing in disguise for him to die with wife and daughter. During last 33 years many airlines companies came and went (including IA). Scores of airline accidents took place. In 33 years, across the world, over 1000 plane crashed killing thousands. What lesson we learnt?

There is no perceptible change in the mind-set of people. Between 1988 and today, many revolutions happened. Around 1988, we had computer revolution. Computers of the size of a room with ACs. Companies like IBM, Dell started mass production. We have palm tops today! A decade later, we had yet another revolution in communications. The way we communicate has changed. Push button messages and instant telecommunication became a reality. I Phones! 2010 witnessed services revolution. The best example of services revolution is Swiggy, Zomato and Uber. In spite of these we learnt nothing about safety.

Mr. Ashok Agarwal died uncared and without dignity. He became history. No airlines company / no passenger would remember him today. 33 years of living hell before dying a solitary, uncared & undignified death. Every accident teaches something new and we must learn from it. Not to consign that accident to historical flames. Insurance companies will pay…probably the insurer involved in insuring IA flight 113 from Mumbai to Ahmedabad would have certainly paid; he would have sold the salvage lying scattered in and around the Ahmedabad airport to reduce his losses. The responsibility of an insurer should not end with claim payment. With every claim, insurer not paying his own money, the insurer must strive to improve safety. Message of safety should be taken to people - only then the wasted life of Ashok Agarwal will have a meaning. Had his daughter, Ruhi, who was 1-year-old, been alive, would be nearly 32 years old; looked as beautiful as she was at year 1, educated, fashionable, very conversant with technology and would be busy serving the mankind. I am sorry Ruhi that you had to die young. Late Mr. Ashok Agarwal’s life should become immortal. We are taking off… to tell people the importance of safety through the products we manufacture from salvage.