18 June 2016: India’s first women fighter pilots have recorded a mark to the country after the three women were formally commissioned women pilot fighter by the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday 18 June along with the flight cadets of various branches of IAF at a combined graduation parade at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal.
According to the reports, the first batch women fighter pilots who have made India a proud country and created history are namely,
- Bhawana Kanth (24) hailing from Bihar has made brought history, fame and made proud to her state and also the country by becoming one of the three women fighter pilots. She is a B.Tech graduate from BMS Engineering College in Bangalore, after which she had joined Air Force Service Commission.
- Avani Chaturvedi is a B.Tech in Computer Science graduated from Banasthali University in Jaipur. She is from Madhya Pradesh. After her completion of B.Tech, she joined IAF. She says that ‘My dream is to become a good fighter pilot on whom seniors can rely when it comes to flying for live operations. I want to fly the best fighter aircraft and learn more and more.’
- Mohana Singh is from Jhunjunu, Rajasthan. She had completed her B.Tech in Electronics and Amp Comm from GIMET in Amritsar. After that, she had joined IAF. She had an aspiration to join in IAF as her father and grandfather has been her inspiration and she wants to continue the family legacy, she said.
The three women all in their 20’s have created history by becoming India’s first women fighter pilot after they commissioned as women fighter pilot by the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. Each has completed the first stage of training and has about 150 hours of flying.
They will be trained for 6 months on the Advanced Jet Fighter, the British Hawk, and they will be assigned fighter and squadrons.
According to the Indian Express reports, there were six women who were competing for the honour after the induction has been announced for women in the month of October, but only these three young women could get through in the final selection for the women fighter pilot.
Earlier, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha had made an announcement during the occasion of International Women’s Day that the Nation will see its first batch of women fighter pilots that will be declared on June 18.
