Michael A. Chowdry (1954-2001) was a

Pakistani-American Pakistani Americans ( ur, ) are Americans who originate from Pakistan. The term may also refer to people who also hold a dual Pakistani and U.S. citizenship. Educational attainment level and household income are much higher in the Pakistani-Am ...

businessman who became the founder of American-based cargo carrier

Atlas Air Atlas Air, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, is a major American cargo airline, passenger charter airline, and aircraft lessor based in Purchase, New York. Atlas Air is the world's largest operator of the Boei ...

in 1992. He was on the

Forbes 400 The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is publ ...

list with a net worth of $920 million, ranked among the richest American businessmen of Pakistani heritage before his death in a plane crash in 2001.

Early life and education

Born in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in a Muslim Punjabi family, Chowdry emigrated to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

aged 15. He was a son of Chowdry Ghais Akbar Buttar, a retired army officer and grandson of Chowdry Mohammad Akbar Buttar; a government bureaucrat. In 1976, he moved to the United States where he graduated from the

University of Minnesota Crookston The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMN Crookston) is a public college in Crookston, Minnesota. One of five campuses in the University of Minnesota system, UMN Crookston had a fall 2022 enrollment of 1,489 undergraduate students. Students come ...

in 1978 with a degree in Agricultural Aviation. He started his aviation career flying crop dusters and selling Piper airplanes to cover his college tuition. He gave flying lessons to farmers, and also worked under a government contract flying Native Americans to the

Mayo Clinic The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staff, ...

from reservations in the midwest.

Career

Chowdry expanded his business into buying and selling landing rights at constrained airports in the early 1980s. In 1984, he started a company named Aeronautics Leasing, which leased passenger airplanes to major carriers such as

Pan American Pan-American, Pan American, Panamerican, Pan-America, Pan America or Panamerica may refer to: * Collectively, the Americas: North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean * Something of, from, or related to the Americas * Pan-Amer ...

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

and

Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...

. In 1992, Michael Chowdry founded

which is based in

Purchase, NY Purchase is a hamlet in the town and village of Harrison, in Westchester County, New York, United States. One myth explains that its name is derived from Harrison's purchase, where John Harrison was to be granted as much land as he could ride in ...

, valued around $ 1.39 billion, operates B747's in 46 countries and 101 cities. By 1993, Atlas Air was flying routes to Taipei and Europe, and the company went public in 1997.

Plane crash

On January 24, 2001, Michael Chowdry died while flying his personal

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

-made

Aero L-39 Albatros The Aero L-39 Albatros is a high-performance jet trainer designed and produced in Czechoslovakia by Aero Vodochody. It is the most widely used jet trainer in the world; in addition to performing basic and advanced pilot training, it has also fl ...

jet trainer with Jeff Cole, aerospace editor of the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. The plane crashed in

Watkins, Colorado Watkins (also called Box Elder) is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated town and a Census-designated place, census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Arapahoe County, Colorado, Arapahoe and Adams County, Colorado, Adams counties, ...

, killing both Chowdry and Cole. He was survived by his wife and four children."Forbes Faces: Michael Chowdry"
Forbes, 01-25-2001 His wife Linda in 2021 published the memoir ''No Man's Son - A Flight from Obscurity to Fame'' about her late husband."Friday Harbor Author Shares the Highs and Lows of Aviation in 'No Man's Son'"
San Juan Islander, 2001

References

External links

Chowdry, Michael on Forbes 400

Introducing the Michael A. Chowdry $5,000 Entrepreneurial Scholarships

1955 births 2001 deaths American people of Punjabi descent Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Pakistani expatriates in England Pakistani emigrants to the United States American transportation businesspeople University of Minnesota Crookston alumni American people of Pakistani descent Accidental deaths in Colorado American billionaires Pakistani billionaires Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2001 People from Lahore {{Pakistan-business-bio-stub