IAF all-woman crew flies Mi-17 chopper

Indian women in the armed forces continued to scale new heights when an allwoman crew of the Indian Air Force flew a medium-lift helicopter for the first time in India.

The crew, comprising Flight Lieutenant Parul Bhardwaj (Captain), Flying Officer Aman Nidhi (co-pilot) and Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal (flight engineer), flew a Mi-17 V5 helicopter for a Battle Inoculation Training Mission, taking off and landing from restricted areas at a forward air base in the South Western Air Command.

The pilots had undergone basic flight training at the Helicopter Training School at Air Force Station, Hakimpet followed by advanced training at Air Force Station, Yelahanka.

In another rare feat, IAF chief B.S. Dhanoa and Western Air Command chief Raghunath Nambiar flew in a formation together in a commemorative flight paying tribute to a Kargil war hero. Dhanoa and Nambiar strapped up for the “missing man” formation in Bathinda. It is rare for the top two IAF officers to fly together in a formation. Both are Kargil veterans as they had flown missions during the conflict with Pakistan in 1999.

Nambiar, who is also one of the strong contenders to become IAF chief after Dhanoa, had flown Mirage 2000 during the Kargil war, while Dhanoa had commanded a Mig-21 squadron. After the flight, Dhanoa said that the government’s decision to buy two squadrons of Rafale was game changing. He said the IAF had enhanced its capability immensely since the Kargil war as all the fighters were now equipped with precision weapons.