GREAT YARMOUTH, UK—As 67-year-old Ben Bedi retired, he said he was proud to have been Britain’s only Sikh air traffic controller.
Mr Bedi was born in the Punjab district of India, but his career brought him to North Denes Heliport in Caister Road, Great Yarmouth.
He worked there for the last seven years, and with a wide smile across his face said he had loved every minute.
“It’s beautiful, ” he said. “I enjoyed every bit of it.”
“At the end of the day all the aircraft landed safely and nobody shouted at each other.
“I would start with a ‘good morning’ and finish with a ‘good night’.”
Mr Bedi—who stayed in a Wellesley Road guesthouse when working in Yarmouth—said he had to make big sacrifices to pursue his career.
“I have no Indian relations here and no Indian community,” he revealed. “I hardly know anyone because of the job that I do.
“I had to let the nationality go, but I believe in the way I was brought up in India.”
But he grinned that it was not a grand vision that set him on his course.
“I wasn’t passing any exams at all at school,” he said. “But now I’ve got more qualifications than anyone can put together.”
He started out as a commercial pilot in India, before coming to Britain to gain British licences so he could fly different planes.
When he ran into financial difficulties he re-trained with air traffic control certificates, and his career has taken him from Southampton to the Shetland Islands and Sheffield.
He is still an examiner for radio licences and has left a lasting impression on his colleagues in Yarmouth.
They know him for his broad grin and catchphrase that there are “enough chiefs and not enough Indians” in the workplace.
Mr Bedi said he had faced discrimination earlier in his career, but never sought lawyers—and always used his professional experience to get on.
Bruce Greenall, manager of air traffic services at North Denes Heliport, said: “I’ve known Ben for many years.
“He’s a diligent worker, loves the job and there’s a lot of experience there.
“Everybody likes him, the pilots all come over and want to talk with him and I’m sorry to lose him.”
Richard Barber, managing director of parent company Safe Skys, said Mr Bedi’s work had been “invaluable”.
Mr Bedi, who lives in Sheffield, joked: “Now I have retired I am bored to death!”
He hailed all his British colleagues for helping him in his long career.
