The journey was planned to pay tribute to French aviators Paul Klein and Henri Martinet, who flew from Noumea, the capital city of the French territory of New Caledonia, to Paris in 1939 on a trailblazing travel.
Just after an hour of their arrival in the city, the two pilots, accompanied by Consul-General of France Christian Ramage, spoke at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club.
Mr Perdu said he and his partner had a passion for flying and had been toying with the idea of paying tribute to the legendary aviators for several years. He said they intended to cover a distance of 22,000 kilometres to reach Noumea. He said they wished to relive the same journey as their predecessors did on a small plane (Renault).
He told the media that Paul Klein and Henri Martinet’s effort was the initial link between New Caledonia and France before which people communicated with each other by ship.
The two pilots (Mr Perdu and Mr Tiriault) have already been to some countries and stopped at different cities for refuelling and other technical purposes. They landed in Karachi on their way to India.
Mr Perdu said he and Mr Tiriault were pleased to be in Pakistan, a country where some people were scared to come. On their way they suffered a scare when the canopy (windscreen) of their plane broke and they had to land in emergency in Oman.
Apprising journalists about the plane, he said it was nine metres wide, six metres long and two metres high.
Responding to a question, Mr Perdu said he was not a professional pilot but a gynaecologist.
Mr Tiriault, who found it difficult to speak in the English language, said he was a businessman and happy to be a part of the voyage.
In reply to another question as to why they took the risk of travelling by a small plane when the pilots weren’t even professional, Mr Perdu said the trip was an adventure as well as an attempt to pay tribute to the trailblazing pilots of the ‘30s.
The aircraft was fuel efficient (seven litres to a hundred kilometres) and caused less pollution, he added.
Earlier, Consul-General of France Christian Ramage introduced the two pilots to journalists and said it was a special event, particularly given the fact that Air France hadn’t been coming to or going from Karachi for the last many years.
However, he said, during the last 10 days two French planes landed in Pakistan — one carried 30 tonnes of relief goods for flood victims in Sindh on Sept 25 and the other was Spirit of Noumea.
He said the voyage was to commemorate the achievements of French pilots in the 1920s and ‘30s. He also spoke about Karachi’s importance in terms of aviation.Mr Perdu and his partner had stopovers in Italy, Greece, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman on their way to Pakistan. They will land in three Indian cities, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia en route to Noumea.
The pair was to leave Karachi for its next destination (India) on Wednesday morning.
Source : Dawn.com
