I was thoroughly dissapointed at the fact that nothing was ever written about Sq.Ldr Shiran Perera after his tragic death whilst flying the Mi-17 helicopter with Minister Ashraff and company.

Whilst there was so much media coverage on Ashraff, there wasn’t even one article written about Sq.Ldr Shiran Perera except a few lines on who died in the helicopter. Shiran Perera was one of SLAF’s finest pilots with close to 8000 flying hours to his credit. He was a Bell 212 captain, a Bell 412 captain, a Mi-17 captain and a flight instructor.

I knew him personally whilst he was at S.Thomas’ College Mt.Lavinia and he was a few years older than me in school. He was a college prefect and a RSM in the cadet platoon. I last met him two months ago at the SLAF base in Katunayake and he mentioned that he was about to get married soon. Little did I ever knew that it was the last time that I would ever see him.

By honouring a man by having an article in the newspapers is the least we can do for a man who has made the ultimate sacrifice. The armed forces personnel are also human beings and deserve a place in the newspapers as much as the politicians do, if not more. May he rest in peace!
Samantha Wickramasinghe
Colombo 8