Aviator family clocks 100 yrs of flights together

New Delhi, Aug. 13: Crisp whites, peak caps, flight bags, four stripes on their shoulders and the love for flying are the constants for three generations of Bhasins, a unique aviator family.

Five members of the family — parents, two children and their late grandfather — have nearly 100 years of flying among them. Captain Jai Dev Bhasin, the grandfather and the pioneer was among the first seven pilots in the country to become a commander in 1954. When his future daughter-in-law Nivedita Jain joined his company, Indian Airlines, she was the third woman to do so. Today, she and her husband Captain Rohit Bhasin are proud parents of two young commanders, Rohan and Niharika Bhasin.

“Flying fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Maybe when I was as young as six or seven,” recalls the matriarch, 54. Her face lights up recounting the most important day of her life as if it were yesterday. “I was at a friend’s birthday party

Captain Jai Dev Bhasin, grandfather and pioneer, was among first seven pilots in country to become a commander in 1954

when my father came running with an appointment letter for me from Indian Airlines. The day is etched in my memory. It was June 29, 1984,” she says.

She was 20 when she received the letter and in the next eleven years, went on to achieve her most cherished career milestones. At 26, already a mother to a one-year-old, she received her command on Boeing 737, becoming the youngest woman captain of a jet plane in the world.

Seven years later when she became a commander on th eAirbus 300 - one of the bigger aircrafts in the world back then and also the first-ever wide-body aircraft, it would be the culmination of her dreams. She had also become a trendsetter when she co-piloted the world’s first ever allwoman crew flight with a Fokker Friendship aircraft on the CalcuttaSilchar route in 1985.

Her feats set her apart and her children say they were in awe of her. “As a a child I would keep looking at her while she would get ready for work and I wanted to dress up like her one day,” says Niharika, 26, who has been flying with IndiGo for over four years.

Not having their parents around all the time during their childhood did not bother the siblings. That has changed since they started flying.