He showed the way at Air/Ground operations

A twin, he was originally from Balapitiya, in the southern part of Sri Lanka. His dialect typical of the language spoken there, stood witness to his place of birth, until his demise.

Quick witted and with a razorsharp mind, yet with a kindest heart, he loved animals. Away from duties, he was a good and selfless friend, always considerate to extend whatever help he could afford to others.

When we (a batch of eight) joined the Airport (then Civil Aviation) in 1974, he was our senior in charge of Air/Ground operations and taught us the basics of Morse Code operation, which system was used to communicate with other regional stations related to air movements, Semi Circular Rule (for segregation of flying levels) along with international phonetics to facilitate voice communication with aircraft in our territory called Flight Information Region (FIR) and with adjacent regional ground stations in a network of Air/Ground stations, in addition to educating us, how call-sign numbers were allotted in consideration of the direction (east or west) of travel, either to or from the Colombo International Airport, Katunayake (BIA).

In general parlance, work functions or the job role of an Air Traffic Controller is commonly understood by any layman. Yet, during that time, the Aero Mobile Communications Dept., formed part of Air Traffic Services and even at present, Air Traffic Controllers, in sectored Air Traffic, depended or sought the services provided by Aero Mobile communication officers, who work in a network, joining South East Asian ground stations. And several were the situations when Kalingawansa whom we called Kalinga Ayya, could avert near-misses by pinpointing to the otherwise miscalculating Air Traffic Controller, to ascertain the exact point of time when two flying aircraft converge or intersect, at certain coordinates of the globe simultaneously.

His other twin predeceased him, and Kalinga Ayya peacefully departed this world, around five years ago in Ratmalana where he lived since his marriage, leaving a daughter who today is a High Court Judge/ Magistrate in the Gampaha District.

May his journey in this samsara be a shorter one.