Kershi Cambata, Adventurous International Business Executive, 88
DGH
Kershi Cambata, 88; Adventurous International Business Executive
By Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post Staff Writer
Kershi Cambata, 88, a business executive who built India's largest
private ground handling services for international airlines, died of
renal failure May 10 [2008] at his home in Millboro, Virginia. He also
lived in McLean [Virginia].
Mr. Cambata had business interests in shipping, mining, the film
industry and aviation. His Cambata Aviation India employs more than
3,000 people and provides ground handling services for 15 airlines.
Its sole U.S. holding is Starport USA, providing aircraft services out
of a 45,000-square-foot maintenance and avionics hangar at the Orlando
airport.
The Bombay [India] native lived a colorful life. As a child, he played
with Indira Gandhi on the veranda of his family's home while his
father, a theater owner who was involved with the formation of the
Congress Party, met with Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. The
family often entertained visiting Hollywood stars, including James
Stewart and William Holden.
Mr. Cambata joined the Royal Indian Air Force, a branch of the British
Royal Air Firce, during World War II, flying Spitfires into Burma and
surviving being shot down over the jungles of Southeast Asia.
He was in Bombay on April 14, 1944, when the cargo ship Fort Stikine,
laden with gold bullion, TNT and cotton, accidentally exploded in its
berth. The explosion lifted a nearby 4,000-ton ship from the bay onto
land, destroying 12 nearby ships, killing 1,300 people and injuring
3,000, according to the History.com Web site. Because of his family's
shipping interests, Mr. Cambata was able to get to the flaming docks
and, in his RAF uniform, drive trucks of medical supplies, food and
the chief executive of Shell Oil India to the scene of the disaster.
After the war ended, he bought an L-5 Sentinel, a light aircraft built
of steel tubing, plywood and cotton fabric. When an engine failure
forced him down in central India one day, villagers rushing to inspect
it poked a hole in the fabric. Mr. Cambata later told his wife that he
was lucky that he carried Scotch tape with him, because he used it to
patch the holes and take off again.
While he was starting a crop-dusting business in India during the
1950s, he became friends with helicopter pioneer Stanley Hiller in the
United States. His interest in helicopters led him in 1968 to the home
of another friend, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Mr. Cambata offered to take
the maharishi for a ride and said he had one more seat available. Out
of nowhere, he later told his wife, all four Beatles appeared, begging
for a ride. Mr. Cambata chose George Harrison, his wife said, although
in the Beatles Anthology, Paul McCartney remembered that the passenger
was John Lennon.
Many years later, on January 13, 1982, Mr. Cambata and two of his sons
were in McLean to buy what would become their home. They were hurrying
to catch a flight back to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where they lived at
the time, but traffic jams and a blizzard held them up, causing them
to miss their takeoff.
That flight, Air Florida Flight 90, crashed into the Potomac River,
killing 78 people, including four on the ground.
Mr. Cambata enjoyed sailing as well as flying and was active in
political causes.
His marriage to Mary Cambata ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Phebe Cambata of McLean and
Millboro [Virginia]; two sons from his first marriage, Fali Cambata of
Frankfurt, Germany, and Darius Cambata of St. Paul, Minnesota; four
children from his second marriage, Elbert Cambata of Staunton,
Virginia, and Lugano, Switzerland, Jacqueline Cambata of Vienna [?
Virginia or Austria ?], Nelson Cambata of New Smyrna Beach, Florida,
and Bruce Cambata of Millboro; and nine grandchildren.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/30/AR2008053003007.html