Air HK 'enigma' Parashar speaks out on power behind his success

AIR Hongkong's controversial president, Captain Pran Parashar, ''went public'' for the first time this week when he spoke to the monthly luncheon meeting of the Hongkong International Aerospace Forum. It was quite a debut.

''I am considered quite an enigma in both the media and the industry,'' said the chief troubleshooter of Air HK, under chairman Stanley Ho.

The 69-year-old captain had lunch guests buzzing from the moment he stood up and asked them to say a prayer for the survival of the financially troubled airline, a repeat of his first meeting with the Air HK staff last May after a boardroom shake-up by Mr Ho.

Forum chairman Martin Craigs - who later described Capt Parashar's speech as the most passionate and colourful in the five-year history of the forum - announced that the guest speaker was to address the subject of opportunities and obstacles in air freight.

Capt Parashar turned this on its head when he said: ''I rely entirely on divine intervention, I know nothing at all about commercial aviation.'' Then Capt Parashar, also head of Mr Ho's High Speed Ferry company, gave local aviation industry executives an insight into his past.

He was in the Indian Navy until his retirement in 1974. He joined as a marine and general cadet in 1941, then in 1943 he went to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth where he studied in the executive branch.