Indian Navy Operationalises First Batch Of Three Women Pilots On Dornier Aircraft

The first batch of women pilots of Indian Navy have been operationalized on Dornier Aircraft by the Southern Naval Command (SNC) at Kochi, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

The three women pilots were part of the six pilots of the 27th Dornier Operational Flying Training (DOFT) Course, who graduated as ‘Fully operational Maritime Reconnaissance (MR) Pilots’ at a passing out ceremony held at INS Garuda, Kochi on Thursday (22 October).

Rear Admiral Antony George, Chief Staff Officer (Training) of SNC was the chief guest of the event and presented awards to the pilots who are now fully qualified on Dornier aircraft for all operational missions.

The three women pilots of first batch are Lieutenant Divya Sharma (from Malviya Nagar, New Delhi), Lieutenant Shubhangi Swaroop (from Tilhar, Uttar Pradesh) and Lieutenant Shivangi (from Muzaffarpur, Bihar), the statement said.

These officers had initially undergone basic flying training partly with Indian Air Force and partly with the Navy prior to DOFT course. Among the three women pilots operationalized for MR flying, Lt Shivangi was the first to qualify as a naval pilot on 2 December 2019.

The course comprised of one month of ground training phase, which was conducted at various professional schools of SNC and eight months of flying training at the Dornier Squadron of SNC, INAS 550.