Second Rajasthan woman takes to skies as fighter pilot

JODHPUR: Flight Cadet Pratibha from the state was inducted into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force (IAF) by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba at the Air Force Academy (AFA), Dundigal, near Hyderabad on Saturday.
Flight Cadet Shivangi Singh too received her wings today. Both these women officers were commissioned at the combined graduation parade of pilots and ground duty officers today at AFA.
Interestingly, Pratibha is the second woman from Rajasthan who has been selected for this elite aerial combat role in the IAF.Earlier, in June 2016, Mohana Singh from Jhunjhunu was commissioned as a fighter pilot of IAF.
Pratibha hails from Rajgarh and comes from a defence background. Her father served with the Maratha infantry in the Indian Army and her mother is a teacher. The Rajasthan girl took to flying after watching aerial displays by the IAF during Republic Day parades in the capital.
Her stint with the NCC’s air wing came in handy when she trained to be commissioned as fighter pilot. Along with Shivangi and other women cadets, Pratibha had to go undergo tough training as same as their male counterparts.
While various branches of the Air Force offer different kinds of challenges, women can be as good as their male counterparts in all branches, she feels.
Will now be trained on Hawk aircraft for a year: Pratibha
A combat-ready Pratibha said that they would now be trained on Hawk aircraft at Bidar Air Force Station for a year along with Shivangi who hails from Varanasi.
They would then be posted to a fighter squadron for flying MiG 27 or Sukhoi 30 aircraft.
The two were also trained on Kiran Mk-II aircraft at the Hakimpet Air Force Station after receiving their basic training on Swiss made Pilatus PC-7 trainer aircaft at Dundigal.
The first batch of women inducted into the fighter stream of the IAF have already been sent to IAF squadrons after completing all the three phases of their training.
Mohana Singh from Jhunjhunu was among the batch of first three women flight cadets to be inducted as pilots on June 1, 2016.
Interestingly, while the IAF has led the way to inducting women for combat roles, the Indian Army and Indian Navy are yet to do so.
The present government ended the gender-based combat exclusion policy in October 2015, paving the way for the Air Force to announce inducting women officially on the Indian Air Force Day in the same year.