Incredible! Flying Officer Avani Chaturvedi scripted her name into the history after she became the very first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft solo. Notably, Avani Chaturvedi has proved that the bravery, courage and fearlessness lie in the blood of Indian women.
Flying Officer Avani Chaturvedi flew a fighter aircraft MiG-21 bison in her first solo flight on Monday. After doing so, Avani became the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft solo. She undertook the sortie from the Indian Air Force base in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
Importantly, Avani Chaturvedi is one of the three in the first batch of female pilots, besides Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh, who were inducted in Indian Air Force fighter squadron in June 2016. All the three women pilots had undergone strenuous training programme to fly fighter jets.
Later, in the month of July 2016, they were commissioned as flying officers and within a less than a year after the government decided to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis. However, the Indian Air Force has already selected the next batch of three women trainee pilots for the fighter stream.
Interestingly, only a few countries including Britain, the United States, Israel, and Pakistan, have allowed women in the role of fighter pilots.
BACKGROUND:
Avani was born on 27 October 1993. A 24-year old Chaturvedi completed her training at Hyderabad Air Force Academy. She completed her schooling from Deoland, a small town in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh. Completing her Bachelors in Technology from Banasthali University, Rajasthan in 2014, she passed the Indian Air Force exam.
Avani’s father Dinkar Chaturvedi, is an executive engineer in Water Resource Department of M.P. government and her mother is a homemaker. Avani’s elder brother is also an army officer. Chaturvedi likes to play chess, table tennis and to do sketching, painting. She was inspired by Army officers in her family and she also had a few hours of flying experience in the flying club of her college, which inspired her to join the IAF.
Courtesy: NewsBharati
