In memoriam…
Luckily, this subject can be kept short. Our tower is only 25 years old so most of us have not yet had the time to get old… Unexpected tragedies have also mercifully spared the tower crew with the only exception being KG, who left us prematurely. But he made his name originally as an area controller and was active in the tower only for the last few months of his career.
Our colleagues of the met office one floor down did not fare so well… In the 25 years we are talking about, several of their colleagues flew west
into the sunset. The first to go was Guszti, I can’t recall his full name any more. He was of Bulgarian origin but spoke Hungarian without an accent. He was a relaxed, quiet chap with a ready smile and he came up to the tower cab regularly to chat up on things. He was the last person you would expect to have a stroke.
Two decades later, two met guys transferred to the heavenly observation post almost at the same time. UZ was only a little older than me and he too had been in the tower right from the start. He was a section chief when the note came that his time was up. Though he never complained, it was evident that he went through great suffering before finally being released from duty in this world. Just a few months later KJ left us so suddenly, we all shivered at the news. He was my age and he was a guy who worked out regularly. He actually died while exercising…
I left the story of Sanyika to the last, not because it is less important but because it is so extraordinary. Sanyika was the permanent driver of the van allocated to the tower. He was a very interesting character, it was impossible not to like him. It was his duty to transport us all over the airport, from the personnel entrance to the tower, from the tower to the company restaurant and to the offices in Terminal 1. He drove some 300 km per day, the Barkas van sort of becoming part of his body in the process. He was not at all offended when we started calling him our Centaur, part Barkas, part Sanyika… Well, Sanyika the upper part, Barkas the lower… you get the picture. In time, the old Barkas was replaced by a Ford minibus and the “operation” left Sanyika thoroughly unhappy. It just did not feel the same! And here comes the incredible part. Not much later, he passed away while waiting in the minibus. He died as he had lived… an inseparable part of our airport.
May peace be with you my dear friends, we will always remember you.
To be continued…