Gandhingar: Flight Lieutenant Parul Bhardwaj (Captain), Flying Officer Aman Nidhi (Co-pilot) and Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal (Flight Engineer) today became country’s first ‘All Women Crew’ to fly a Medium Lift Helicopter.

The ‘All women crew’ 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 South Western Air Command in Gujarat, an IAF official said.

Flt Lt Parul Bhardwaj hails from Mukerian in Punjab and is incidentally also the first woman pilot to fly the Mi-17 V5. Fg Offr Aman Nidhi hails from Ranchi and is also the first woman IAF pilot from Jharkhand. Flt Lt Hina Jaiswal hails from Chandigarh and is the first woman Flight Engineer of the Indian Air Force.

The Pilots had undergone their basic Flying training at the ‘Helicopter Training School’ at Air Force Station Hakimpet followed by advanced training at Air Force Station Yelahanka. The helicopter was certified airworthy by Squadron Leader Richa Adhikari the unit Engineering officer. This is yet another achievement of women officers in the IAF.

DeshGujarat