I spoke on the phone to Sheikh Kamel Sindi as he left the Intensive Care Unit of a Swiss hospital after undergoing spinal surgery. Then I dreamed yesterday that we wrote a book together.
Well, why not? And the book would be his biography. A few days later, I went to Zurich to reassure myself about the state of his health.
When I arrived, I found him getting ready to go to Paris for another medical exam and, as we sadly learned later, unsucessful surgery.
For more than 15 years Kamel Sindi resigned himself to the restricted and restrictive life of a hospital, punctuated by all too frequent trips to the operating room.
Kamel Sindi’s is a life that deserves to be told. A young man goes into civil aviation in the days when civil aviation was just beginning.
Through diligence and hard work, he climbed the ladder to the top. He was moved to Saudi Arabian Airlines where he assumed the highest position, finally becoming assistant to the Minister of Defense and Aviation.
I do not believe that there is anyone more qualified than he to talk of the development of civil aviation and Saudi Arabia Airlines.
He helped to create both of them in the Kingdom and was largely responsible for laying their foundations.
Kamel Sindi established himself by self-education and one day he invited a group of us to accompany him to an IATA meeting in Italy.
As we were coming back, I said to him: “I knew that you were well-informed about civil aviation and Saudia but I didn’t know you had such a deep knowledge and understanding of international aviation and transportation.”
He modestly accepted my praise and I assured him that it was sincerely offered. Today he is at home in Jeddah and his story is very much worth being told — and read by all, particularly our young people.
Arab News Features 15 January 2003
