Mohana Singh becomes first woman fighter pilot to fly Hawk jet

Her training involved flying both air-to-air combat and air-to-ground missions

Mohana Singh becomes first woman fighter pilot to fly Hawk jet

Pic/Twitter

Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh has become the first woman fighter pilot to fly by day a Hawk advanced jet aircraft, a defence release has said.

She achieved the feat at the Kalaikunda Air Force Station in West Bengal on Thursday, it said.

"Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh became the first woman fighter pilot to become fully operational by day on Hawk advanced jet aircraft as she landed after a gruelling 4 aircraft combat sortie at Air Force station Kalaikunda, West Bengal, which was the last syllabus sortie, of being fully operational on the Hawk Jets," the release issued on Friday said.

#Milestone On 30th May 19, Flt Lt Mohana Singh became the first IAF woman pilot to become fully operational by day on 'Hawk' aircraft. She is one of the three women pilots inducted in the fighter stream of the IAF. #Congratulations pic.twitter.com/iBuyxHL8Eq
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) May 31, 2019

The female fighter pilot achieved the feat after rigorous training involving both Air to Air combat and Air to Ground missions.

"She has undertaken many practice missions which involved firing of rockets, guns and dropping high calibre bombs and also participated in various Air Force Level flying exercises. She has a total of over 500 hrs of incident-free flying of which 380 hrs are on the Hawk Mk 132 jet," the statement read.

Her training involved flying both air-to-air combat and air-to-ground missions, it added.

She has a total of over 500 hours of incident-free flying, of which 380 hours are on the Hawk Mk 132 jet. She had, along with two other women pilots, Bhawana Kanth and Avani Chaturvadi, joined the fighter stream in June 2016, it said.

#WomenPower: Bhawana joined the fighter squadron in Nov 2017 & flew the 1st solo on MiG-21 Bison in Mar 2018. With her dedication, hard work & perseverance she has become the 1st women Officer to achieve this feat. She is from the first batch of women fighter pilots of the IAF. pic.twitter.com/v2voizwFyO
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) May 22, 2019

Flight Lieutenant Bhawana Kanth became the first woman to qualify for combat missions on a fighter jet, On May 22. She had completed the operational syllabus for carrying out combat missions on MiG-21 Bison aircraft during the daytime.