South Asian Canadian air pilots

Studio portrait of Ikball Singh Hundal.

Photo of Ikball Singh Hundal in Reserve Officer Training Corps uniform in front of a de Havilland, the aircraft used by the US military at the end of WW1 while training to be a pilot. Ikball was accepted to the University of Washington and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1925. During his time at the University of Washington, he signed up for the Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC) and achieved the highest rank of Lieutenant. After graduating from the university, Ikball encountered a very strict race bar that effectively barred him from becoming a professional engineer, a pilot or any other professional. He was told the only work for him, as a South Asian, was on the "green chain," one of the lowest paid and highest risk jobs in the industry pushing wood through the saws. Instead, Ikball chose to return to India, under the sponsorship of the Ghadar Party in 1930 to take up the activist cause to end the British rule of India. He returned to Canada in 1955. He died tragically on December 26, 1965 as the victim of random violence in Vancouver.

Creator: Vancouver Sun

Image of Jiginder Singh Johl [second from right] being led away from a plane by three other unidentified people after an emergency landing in Johnstone Strait.

Creator: Canada. Transport Canada

Creator: Travers, C. T.

Letter of registration from the Canadian Department of Transport (now Transport Canada) for Jiginder Singh Johl's commercial air pilot license.

Image of Jiginder Singh Johl stepping into the cockpit of his plane.

Image of Jiginder Singh Johl's plane in an empty field.

Image of Jiginder Singh Johl stepping into the cockpit of his plane.

Image of Jiginder Singh Johl standing on the wing of his plane.

Creator: Canada. Transport Canada

Jiginder Singh Johl's pilot's license and certificate of competency.