By DayakDaily Team
Wan Mohamad Ali Wan Abdullah always had a thing for uniformed bodies, and his ambition was to become a police inspector.
At the age of 18, he went for the interview and was accepted into the police force, but his parents disapproved of his dream, fearing they might lose their son due to the high occupational hazards associated with the service at that time.
His parents went as far as the police headquarters to cancel his application and managed to talk the teenager out of it. Wan Mohamad Ali then turned his attention to becoming a pilot—yet another occupation marked by uniforms.
During the gap of several months waiting for his Malaysian Certificate of Education results, he decided to work part-time as an aircraft cleaner for Hornbill Skyways. He and another aircraft cleaner were stationed at the Hornbill Skyways hangar in Kuching which housed four helicopters and aeroplanes. “Billy and I were the first aircraft cleaners for Hornbill Skyways,” he said proudly.
After receiving his results, Wan Mohamad Ali applied for the Hornbill Skyways’ flying school scholarship and went for his training at the British-run Singapore General Aviation School. He was one of the very first four scholars of Hornbill Skyways, alongside the late Mohamad Yusof, Lim Kim Sia and Thomas Lim.
Following two intense years of military-like training with gruelling daily schedules, 7pm curfews regardless of weekends or public holidays, 26 papers to complete and 200 flying hours to fulfill, Wan Mohamad Ali graduated. The next six years he spent flying for Hornbill Skyways were fueled by youthful ambition and his never-dying dream of flying bigger and bigger aircraft.
It was during his next eight-year service with Malaysia Airlines that he finally flew the Boeing 747, the Queen of the Skies. In the early 2006, when the airline underwent significant restructuring, many pilots left for foreign airlines due to allowance cuts. Among them was Wan Mohamad Ali, who set off on a new flying adventure with a national airline of Kazakhstan.
Six years later, he returned home and flew for AirAsia for another five years before being scouted to become Hornbill Skyways’ designated pilot for Sarawak VVIPs.
Never in Wan Mohamad Ali’s imagination did he think he would return to serve his first-ever company and benefactor, but there he was—after 30 years of flying around the world—back at the same hangar where he used to scrub windshields and vacuum seats.
During Miron Kumer Ganguly’s tenure as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Hornbill Skyways, Wan Mohamad Ali served as the Chief of Flight Operations. After Miron’s retirement in 2024, Wan Mohamad Ali officially took over the baton in April 2024.
“I was just a boy from Kampung Sebuyau, who wanted to see the world,” he recalled.
And here today, Wan Mohamad Ali is the man calling the shots at Hornbill Skyways, the very company that paid him his first salary. He still treasures his Rolex GMT-Master 1 pilot watch, an antique timepiece he bought with his early savings and kept in pristine condition to this day.
Stepping into his 65th year this August, he is happily married and blessed with five children and eight grandchildren. He used to be a marathon runner when he was younger, but today, he makes it a point to run on the treadmill for half an hour daily, a strict requirement from his children. As the years pass, he finds solace in gardening, nurturing his plants during his leisure time.
It has been a long journey from washing aircraft to leading the company, but Wan Mohamad Ali carries his achievements with quiet pride—a testament to the fact that even the humblest beginnings can take flight and soar. — DayakDaily
