Sai Kung readers of ex-Cathay Captain John Warham’s new book will be entertained by his stories about flying and the new love in his life, Klaske, as well as being shocked by revelations of what happened to him in our community.
The book, “The 49ers II – The Rest of the Story”, tells how the 14-year saga of John’s leadership of a shrinking “Band of Brothers”, fired by Cathay, was resolved. It has long transcripts of court cases and negotiations with CX but, if you’re not interested in the technicalities, you can skip those and enjoy the rest of the ride.
John’s got stories to tell of flights that nearly ended in disaster, and some that did. It’s all part of his message that pilots must fight accountant-led airlines like CX or safety standards will slip. Have slipped, rather, he would argue. Captain Dave Newbery made the same case in a paper for the Royal Aeronautical Society, reported in these pages recently. What they’re saying is that in an era of over-reliance on simulator training, the potential is for pilots to get command of airliners with 400 people down the back with little real experience for what can go wrong on a dark night in stormy weather letting down into an unfamiliar airport.
The book also relates stories of John’s personal life and, at times, the writing seethes with anger. Martin Lau Yap-lan, an intelligent talented former dancer with Hong Kong Ballet, was going through a bad patch and John let him share his house. Lau stole John’s cheques and cashed them over time for a total of $324,000. Convicted, Lau was sentenced to six months’ jail, which was suspended. John steams with rage that justice was not done.
Then Lau did it again. Another Cathay Captain Pete Bissell, also resident in Sai Kung, discovered that Lau was stealing from his wife, Deb. She was in recovery from a debilitating illness and was having difficulty coping with things like numbers. Lau, forgiven by the Bissells who were trying to help him, wangled ways to do Deb’s banking for her. He stole thousands. Pete went to the police. Convicted of three counts of theft, Lau was sentenced to three months. This time he went to jail.
“Klaske Kragt is a slender, statuesque, Nordic blonde,” John writes. She’s a farmer’s daughter from Friesland, Holland, and the second love in John’s life (the first was Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia Foundation, with whom he still works). Klaske, a long time resident of Sai Kung, now lives most of the time with John in a $2 million house they’ve bought in Koh Samui. She has been by his side when, under the stress of the long battle with CX, the “black dog” re-emerged…
“The 49ers II” is dedicated to Klaske, along with Don Fraser – John’s wingman and brother in arms for the last 14 years . When they’re in Sai Kung you’ll likely see them outside Cava having “a cold beer on a warm evening”.
John claims, not too seriously, that his tenacity in fighting Cathay legally in several countries stunted the careers of the three top CX executives at the time. Peter Sutch, David Turnbull and Tony Tyler all left the Swire group early or did not follow the usual promotion path. “Now this all sounds pretty arrogant; that I was responsible for
bringing down the top three men in a row. There may have been other reasons for their departures”, he writes, but they all came unstuck while the “Band of Brothers” battle was going on.
If the two books were combined and abridged by a good editor, John could have a big seller in the aviation-buff market. Both have many chapters that are riveting if you’ve ever wanted to fly a jetliner.
The biggest long-term value of the books may be as textbooks for unionists fighting large corporations – and for managements wanting to be fully prepared for what the unions might throw at them.
“The 49ers II” is available now on Kindle, iPad, Nook and Kobo. The hardback version is due for release soon.
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