A house with a rich history and a room with a view

Cargo Masterminds interview recording with Mark Sutch was quite unique in many ways. This is the first episode of this series that we recorded on-site and in-person. This was also the first on-site and in-person interview that I did 620 days after the last one I did during Air Cargo India conference in Mumbai. And even more interesting is the fact that the Cargo Mastermind in this episode, Mark Sutch, was the last person that I interviewed on-site, in-person and that happened on 26 February 2020.

When the request for the interview (obviously it was to be done on Zoom) was sent to Mark, he recommended that we do the interview in-person and he was generous to have the interview recorded at his home in Mumbai as Cathay Pacific Airways office in Mumbai was being relocated to another building. That was just too good because he lives in an apartment in The Lyndewode House, near Kemps Corner in South Mumbai. And The Lyndewode House has a fascinating history.

In early 1920s a Parsi cotton merchant P D Patel sent his six sons to Cambridge University to get their degrees after finishing school in Bombay. To provide accommodation for his children while they studied in Cambridge, Patel purchased a large house located on Lyndewode Road in Cambridge and he named it as Lyndewode House. When the six brothers finished their education, the house was sold and they returned to India. In 1938 the brothers built a new building on Cumballa Hill which was the site of an old light house. They named this building The Lyndewode House in memory of their old house in England. Lyndewode House in Cambridge still stands today.

And on Monday 8 November morning we storm into his house. Besides me, there were four technicians with multiple equipment (lights & cameras) and three of Mark’s colleagues from the communication department. His drawing room is full of aviation memorabilia.

And in the video you will find some very interesting pieces of aviation history. What you see in the background, leaning on to the wall, is the wingtip of a Douglas DC-3 ‘Dakota’ aircraft. Real one! This is the starboard wing.

The second piece of history you will find in the video frame is the runway light on the floor at the centre in the back. This runway light is from Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. This airport, closed since 2008, was the airport famous for the Berlin Airlift. Berlin Airlift from 26 June 1948 to 30 September 1949 was meant to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin when Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control in the post–World War II Germany.

And the third piece of history, an important one indeed. It is at the centre of the video frame. Look at base of the glass-top centre table. It is the core of a Pratt & Whitney JT9D jet engine. According to Mark, Pratt & Whitney JT9D engine powered the early generation of B747 aircraft. Remember Cathay Pacific Airways has a few of those beautiful, nose loading and four-engine powered freighters in its fleet doing some heavy lift from around the world.

I must say that Mark was very kind to allow us to move things around in his drawing room the way we wanted to get the best angles and best props in the camera frame. When we left his house about two hours after we entered, the drawing room was not the same as the one we saw when he welcomed us in. Mark, thank you so much. Very valuable experience. Thank you for those tidbits of aviation and air cargo history. Loved creating this video.