AIR INDIA PILOT FALLS ASLEEP & KILLS 158!
San Francisco, CA– One of the funnier stories in boxing history involved air travel, Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell. The day after George Foreman mopped the floor with Ken Norton in 1974 in Caracas, Venezuela, the plane carrying Ali and Cosell, the most famous boxing announcer in history, a staple of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, the plane is accelerating at a high speed down the runway.
BOXING ROYALTY SITTING IN FIRST CLASS
Howard Cosell & Ali in 1972
At the last second, the pilot hit the brakes and everybody got a case of forward whiplash as the jet screeched to a halt no less than 30 feet from the water, or the end of the runway. Ten yards away from possible death, Ali yells, “Cosell, I saved your ass again.”
HAROLD SMITH FLYS ALI & EVERYBODY TO CHINA!
In early 1993, promoter Harold Smith flies Muhammad Ali and a crew of 50 or so to Beijing, China. We are there to televise an event dubbed, “Brawl At The Wall” topped by unbeaten WBO light heavy (175 lbs) champ Leeonzer Barber-Mike Sedillo and Mike Weaver, David Bey, Bert Cooper, Terry Davis, David Picha, Kevin Ford, a character named Keith “Sir Jab A Lot” McMurray, and undefeated Ole Klemetson of Norway.
AIR CHINA FLIGHT TO BEIJING
On the way over, Ali and Harold are up in this “executive” cabin, a step above First Class and before the 911 security craze, Harold brings me up there to snooze on a bed. Unable to sleep, I got bored and opened the cockpit door. There to my shock sat three asleep crew members!
WOKE UP LONNIE ALI!
Waking up the champ’s wife, I told her the entire flight crew was sleeping, she told me to wake up Harold. Being the assertive sort, I instead reopened the door and in front of Mrs. Ali, screamed at the sleeping crew, which did wake them up. Unfortunately for that Air India pilot and the 158 people he took with him in May, Pedro wasn’t there to wake him up!
DID YOU READ: MUHAMMAD ALI, PEDRO & THE HELICOPTER?
Click to read: Muhammad Ali, Pedro & The Helicopter
Pedro Fernandez