Insha' Allah........................!

Will tower cranes fail?

OH god I don t want to hear it.we just heard the tragic accident in Grand Mosque Mecca and lost over 190 people. I’m not very certain how many of you continuously reading my blog but if there is anyone who can remember tower crane trap (http://kanchana2015.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-07-01T00:00:00-07:00&updated-max=2015-07-27T22:39:00-07:00&max-results=10&start=5&by-date=false)?

I did read it myself because of the tragic which occurred in Grand Mosque in Mecca Saudi Arabia. But it is not a failure of the tower crane.so far I did not hear failure of a tower crane. The accident occurred on a temporary crane.

Hajj refers to a Muslim's pilgrimage to Mecca and is one of the five pillars of Islam. At least once in his or her lifetime, each Muslim is expected to undertake this pilgrimage the sacred city of Islam. This holy journey is called the hajj in Arabic. While a visit to Mecca is beneficial any time of the year, it must take place during the month of  Dhul-Hajj (the last month of the Islamic year) to fulfill the requirements of the hajj.

Not only Sri Lankan Muslims throughout the world pilgrims to Mecca is an obligation in Islam religion. This has been practiced from Malcom X,Mohammad Ali. Rich or poor, black or white, Asian or European in Mecca nothing matters, as long as you are belong to Islam religion In Mecca everyone is equal.

Those who on the pilgrims on a Mecca have no hope of returning. After pilgrims if they were unable to make the return trip they accept it as a God’s wish. Due to various reason accidents are common. Also devotees on a hard journey through harsh environmental conditions. With modern facilities there are direct flights available to Mecca, but over hundreds’ years ago the journey was through desert .If something happened it’s the wish of the God the almighty.

About 2 million Muslims complete the hajj each year. The government of Saudi Arabia has contributed significant resources to maintain the holy places and manage the crowd of pilgrims. Despite the large numbers seen in Mecca each year, only a small percentage of Muslims have fulfilled the duty. Those who have done so may add the title hajj or hajji to their names.

In Sri Lanka we have Al Hajj Moheedeen Beg, who was a devotee of Islam as well he was a good singer. Most importantly most of his songs were about Lord Buddha or related to Buddhist stories. We Sri Lankan during the Wesak Poya day we will be hearing his songs in almost every Buddhist temple.

 Anyway with such a vast number of people in one place at one time, failures of crowd control and other problems have sometimes led to disaster. Some of the recent tragedies associated with the hajj have included. If few to mention   On July 31, 1987, Iranian pilgrims’ riot, causing the deaths of over 400 people and July 2, 1990, a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca led to the deaths of 1402 pilgrims. Again In 1994, another stampede killed 270 pilgrims. Likewise there are unavoidable incidents occurred within the Mecca premises.

But long before those there was a plane crash with Indonesian pilgrims in 1974.this was happened in Sri Lanka. Recently I went to Norton Bridge in Sri Lanka and able to see some of remaining monuments. The actually what happened was

The Flight 138 was a chartered flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Colombo, Sri Lanka. The aircraft was operated on behalf of Garuda Indonesia. On 4 December 1974, the aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-55CF, crashed into a mountain shortly before landing, killing all 191 people aboard – 182 Indonesian hajj pilgrims bound for Mecca, and 9 crew members.

The flight is said to have departed Surabaya, Indonesia at approximately 12.03 UTC heading to Jeddah planning a stop at Bandaranayake airport, Colombo, Sri Lanka. At around 16.30 UTC Colombo control cleared the flight. At 16.38 UTC another air traffic controller is said to have intervened and cleared the flight down to 5000 feet and reported clearing to 8000 feet. Colombo approach then cleared the flight down to 2000 feet at 16.44 and told the flight to expect a runway 04 approach. 

The crew aboard the flight was then asked to report when the airfield was in sight. The crew then continued their descent until the aircraft crashed into Saptha Kanya Mountain at an altitude of approximately 4,355 feet and at around 40 nm east of Colombo. All 191 passengers and crew were killed. The Saptha Knaya Mountains (seven virgin mountains) belongs to Central hills, Even today there are some places which no one explored. 

The crash remains the worst in Sri Lankan aviation history and the third-deadliest involving a DC-8, after Arrow Air Flight 1285 and Nigeria Airways Flight 2120. At the time, it was the second-deadliest aviation accident, after the loss of Turkish Airlines Flight 981 which occurred earlier that same year.

Now there is a remaining old landing tire placed near the Norton Bridge and a monument plaque. But still if you talk with old people of the town there are people claiming that there were participate the mission on dead bodies in 1974.some stories are true some are fictions.

Anyway friction are sometimes better than real, we have a frictional movie named after Saptha Kanya, but nothing is truly related to the Mountain. The movie became popular among my school days and it had very nice songs.

 During the time movie main actor of the movie have been subjected many controversial stories. But still he manages to stay in the popular line not only as an actor as well TV presenter, singer etc. He did not failed either what happened in his personal life. May be its Gods wish…..