By now we all know about the daring father-son duo, Captains Babar and Haris Suleman, who attempted an ‘around the world in 30 days’ journey from Plainfield, Indiana on June 19 in their single-engine plane but met a tragic end on the last leg of their journey.

Seventeen-year-old American-born Pakistani Haris didn’t care too much for records. His real aim was to raise money for the education of underprivileged children in Pakistan. “I am doing this to raise $1million for The Citizen’s Foundation [TCF] schools. I am associated with a TCF chapter back home in Indiana called Seeds of Learning. On my plane there is a list of donors, who donate money in a charity account opened for the purpose as we progress on our journey. We have already raised half a million and hope to reach our target by the end of our journey,” he had said at the Jinnah International Airport soon after landing there on July 1.

Being a kid after all, his only regret was missing out on the FIFA World Cup matches. A high school junior, he also missed his friends back home. “But my friends, most of whom are my school class fellows, are also pretty excited about what I’m doing and rooting for me,” he had said. When asked if any of those friends also happened to be a girl friend, Haris giggled before shaking his head. “Nope,” he said. About his own studies he had said, “I’m doing this for education. My own education could have been disturbed plenty, only I won’t let it happen.”

The father-son duo set out on a daring journey with noble intentions only to meet a tragic fate

Though he had been seriously thinking about flying around the world and training for it for three years, Haris, who had been accompanying his father on his flights in their plane since the age of eight, only got his private pilot’s license — after logging 50 hours of flight — about a month and a half before going on their world tour.

Riding camels at the Giza pyramids in Egypt

Kids his age can’t even apply for a driver’s license in Pakistan but there he was smiling with pride as he stepped out of his little Beechcraft Bonanza in Karachi. “I know I am too young to fly in many countries of the world,” he said.

Haris’s father, 58-year-old Babar Suleman, who having got his private pilot’s license in 2004, was of course far more experienced than his son, and was accompanying him said, “I have two older kids, another son and a daughter, back home but it is my youngest Haris who takes after me and shares the passion for flying with me,” he had said.

Haris before taking off on his journey

Babar hailed from a family of pilots and also happened to be the younger brother of former Chief of Air Staff Air Marshall (retd) Rao Qamar Suleman. As a pre-cadet and an aspiring fighter pilot, Babar was, due to a systolic heart murmur, found to be medically unfit at the Pakistan Air Force College, Sargodha back in 1971. Most of his relatives, especially the women at home, were not too sure about their taking on such a big challenge (of flying around the world). Babar’s elder sister, Mrs Nasreen Abid Rao, who had come to receive her brother and nephew at the airport in Karachi, said that she had tried her best to convince them to drop the idea. “But once they started their journey I decided to not nag them any further. From then I only prayed for their safety,” she said.

“They had the chance to see the world and to see it together. There is no better way I’d want to imagine the end: with those I love, doing what they love.”

Babar himself had shared that his elderly mother who lived with him in Indiana initially thought that her son and grandson were going to travel around the world on commercial flights. “But when she realised what we were about to do, she was worried that Haris may go to sleep while flying and told me to make him drink pots full of black coffee,” he had laughed.

The moment the duo had landed, Nasreen his sister and Haris’s aunt were on the phone with Mrs Suleman to inform her of their safe arrival. Then she handed over the phone to young Haris who smiled reassuringly while speaking to his mother. “Well, my mother worries if I have enough clean clothes, if I haven’t forgotten anything important behind in some city or the other,” he had explained later.

Capt Haris and father with aunt and TCF students at the Karachi airport

Seeing the confident men and their beautiful plane, no one at that point could really have imagined the tragedy that was to befall them on the last leg of their journey when the plane went down in waters off Pago Pago in American Samoa on July 22.

About 60percent of their journey was over huge expanses of water including the Atlantic, Pacific and parts of Indian Ocean. “Single-engine planes aren’t really made for ocean voyages but we took special emergency training for that. Also we had to wear heavy suits that are also very warm while flying over the ocean,” Haris had explained while admitting that he got a bit nervous when flying over the ocean.

US Coast Guards found Haris’s body soon after but his father and their plane were never found. After days of search and rescue, which then changed to search and recovery operations, the search was eventually suspended by the US Coast Guard on July 27. Haris was laid to rest in Indiana on August 1. Earlier, on July 28, there was also a memorial at sea.

But perhaps there can be no greater tribute than what Haris’s elder sister Hiba Suleman posted on her Facebook timeline recently:

“I can’t even be angry. My dad and bro were doing something amazing that will change thousands of lives to come. They had the chance to see my family around the world. They had the chance to see the world and to see it together. There is no better way I’d want to imagine the end: with those I love, doing what they love.”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 24th, 2014