Indian Navy’s First Batch Of Three Women Pilots Operationalised To Fly Missions On Dornier Do 228 Aircraft

The Indian Navy today operationalised the first batch of three women pilots to fly its Dornier Do 228 aircraft in a maritime reconnaissance role.

The thee women pilots have been identified as Lieutenant Divya Sharma (from Malviya Nagar, New Delhi), Lieutenant Shubhangi Swaroop (from Tilhar, Uttar Pradesh) and Lieutenant Shivangi (from Muzaffarpur, Bihar).

While Lieutenant Shivangi qualified as a naval pilot on 2 December 2019, Lieutenant Divya Sharma and Lieutenant Shubhangi Swaroop qualified 15 days later.

The three women pilots, part of the batch of six pilots of the 27th Dornier Operational Flying Training Course, will now be flying all types of maritime reconnaissance missions for the Indian Navy under its Southern Command.

During the ground training phase, which was about a month long, the women pilots were trained at various professional schools of Southern Command. They received eight months of flying training at IANS 550, a Dornier squadron.

Rear Admiral Antony George, Chief Staff Officer (Training) of the Southern Command was present in the ceremony that took place earlier today.

Till the year 1992, women were inducted only in the Armed Forces Medical Service. The Indian Navy started inducting women as Short Service Commissioned Officers in some branches starting July 1992.

Currently, the Indian Navy inducts women into ATC, Observer, Law, Logistics, Education, Naval Architecture, Pilot (Maritime Reconnaissance Stream only) and Naval Armament Inspectorate branches.