{"id":60669,"date":"2021-03-29T18:10:46","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T18:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=60669"},"modified":"2021-03-29T18:10:46","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T18:10:46","slug":"story-from-the-martinair-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Story from the Martinair tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"mvp-post-title left entry-title\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Story from the Martinair tragedy<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-60670 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"291\" height=\"389\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #800000;\">Source:<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 20px;\" href=\"https:\/\/island.lk\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Island<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">It is absolutely a treat to read articles by Capt. Elmo Jayawardene (EJ), a few years senior to me, in our alma mater, St. Sebastian\u2019s College, Moratuwa, where he excelled in many spheres; specializing in basketball for countless number of monumental years, both as a versatile player\/captain and a \u2018no-nonsense\u2019 coach. His contributions to our college, aviation profession, and the society at large were, and are, \u2018immense\u2019 in order to encapsulate a very long story short of a \u201cGood Samaritan\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">I refer to an article published in this paper a few weeks ago, \u201cA sad night to remember\u201d by EJ. It gave a very clear and comprehensive account of the worst air disaster that ever occurred in our country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"LEFT\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">My short story goes as follows. The native place of a known person to me during that time was Laxapana. On hearing the fatal plane crash, like many others in the surrounding areas, he also visited that place where the smoke was still emanating from the smoldering debris, inside the deep precipice. Whilst being very vigilant for any objects, suddenly he had noticed something moving inside a small cavity, underneath from where he was standing. There was no easy access to that but he managed to grab it after falling flat on the ground and reaching it with greater effort, because with a slightest mistake he would have ended up inside \u2018Seven Virgins\u2019. Sounds good, but fatal!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">To his surprise it was a passport of an Indonesian pilgrim to Makkah, the holiest city in Islam and the followers of the faith.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">I requested him to give it to me for a few days, as I was so curious and desirous to have a look at it, because just after leaving school, during that time, I haven\u2019t seen a single passport of anybody. Later, he obliged my request and I returned that to him a few days later. Years later, when asked about it, he told me that he had given that to a friend in his campus who was so \u2018kind\u2019 enough \u2018not to return it\u2019 as he had pretended to have lost it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">If my 40+ years memory serves right, the name of the holder of that passport was, BIN AHMED SARKAT.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Last December was the 46th anniversary of that painful tragedy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"LEFT\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"LEFT\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">LALITH FERNANDO<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Story from the Martinair tragedy Source:Island It is absolutely a treat to read articles by Capt. Elmo Jayawardene (EJ), a few years senior to me, in our alma mater, St. Sebastian\u2019s College, Moratuwa, where he excelled in many spheres; specializing in basketball for countless number of monumental years, both as a versatile player\/captain and a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[32592,28210],"class_list":{"0":"post-60669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-aside","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles","8":"tag-capt-elmo-jayawardene","9":"tag-st-sebastians-college","10":"post_format-post-format-aside"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.7.1 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Story from the Martinair tragedy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is absolutely a treat to read articles by Capt. Elmo Jayawardene (EJ), a few years senior to me, in our alma mater, St. Sebastian\u2019s College,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Story from the Martinair tragedy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is absolutely a treat to read articles by Capt. Elmo Jayawardene (EJ), a few years senior to me, in our alma mater, St. Sebastian\u2019s College,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"eLanka\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eLanka.com.au\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-29T18:10:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"291\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"389\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"eLanka admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"eLanka admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"eLanka admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/person\/f6e635b74ab35ef88a68a9973cacc5bd\"},\"headline\":\"Story from the Martinair tragedy\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-29T18:10:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/\"},\"wordCount\":398,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Capt Elmo Jayawardene\",\"St. Sebastian\u2019s College\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/\",\"name\":\"Story from the Martinair tragedy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-29T18:10:46+00:00\",\"description\":\"It is absolutely a treat to read articles by Capt. Elmo Jayawardene (EJ), a few years senior to me, in our alma mater, St. Sebastian\u2019s College,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg\",\"width\":291,\"height\":389},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Articles\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/category\/articles\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Story from the Martinair tragedy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/\",\"name\":\"eLanka\",\"description\":\"eLanka - Sri lanka events in Australia\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#organization\",\"name\":\"eLanka\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/elanka-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/elanka-logo.jpg\",\"width\":192,\"height\":82,\"caption\":\"eLanka\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eLanka.com.au\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/elanka\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SriLankanDownUnder\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/person\/f6e635b74ab35ef88a68a9973cacc5bd\",\"name\":\"eLanka admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e0d346a7f97b80e861cdeafe7b7de523b59f5060666f1a5da8369457bf9b6c3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e0d346a7f97b80e861cdeafe7b7de523b59f5060666f1a5da8369457bf9b6c3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"eLanka admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/author\/elanka\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Story from the Martinair tragedy","description":"It is absolutely a treat to read articles by Capt. Elmo Jayawardene (EJ), a few years senior to me, in our alma mater, St. Sebastian\u2019s College,","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Story from the Martinair tragedy","og_description":"It is absolutely a treat to read articles by Capt. Elmo Jayawardene (EJ), a few years senior to me, in our alma mater, St. Sebastian\u2019s College,","og_url":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/","og_site_name":"eLanka","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eLanka.com.au\/","article_published_time":"2021-03-29T18:10:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":291,"height":389,"url":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"eLanka admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"eLanka admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/"},"author":{"name":"eLanka admin","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/person\/f6e635b74ab35ef88a68a9973cacc5bd"},"headline":"Story from the Martinair tragedy","datePublished":"2021-03-29T18:10:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/"},"wordCount":398,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg","keywords":["Capt Elmo Jayawardene","St. Sebastian\u2019s College"],"articleSection":["Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/","url":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/","name":"Story from the Martinair tragedy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg","datePublished":"2021-03-29T18:10:46+00:00","description":"It is absolutely a treat to read articles by Capt. Elmo Jayawardene (EJ), a few years senior to me, in our alma mater, St. Sebastian\u2019s College,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/martin.jpg","width":291,"height":389},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/story-from-the-martinair-tragedy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Articles","item":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/category\/articles\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Story from the Martinair tragedy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#website","url":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/","name":"eLanka","description":"eLanka - Sri lanka events in Australia","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#organization","name":"eLanka","url":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/elanka-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/elanka-logo.jpg","width":192,"height":82,"caption":"eLanka"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/eLanka.com.au\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/elanka\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SriLankanDownUnder"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/person\/f6e635b74ab35ef88a68a9973cacc5bd","name":"eLanka admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e0d346a7f97b80e861cdeafe7b7de523b59f5060666f1a5da8369457bf9b6c3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e0d346a7f97b80e861cdeafe7b7de523b59f5060666f1a5da8369457bf9b6c3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"eLanka admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew"],"url":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/author\/elanka\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60672,"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60669\/revisions\/60672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}