Chennai: The Indian Navy operationalized the very first batch of females pilots of Dornier Aircraft by the Southern Naval Command (SNC) at Kochi. The three ladies pilots belonged to the six pilots from the 27th Dornier Operational Flying Training (DOFT) Course, who finished as ‘Fully operational Maritime Reconnaissance (MR) Pilots at a losing consciousness ceremony held at INS Garuda on Thursday.
Lieutenants Divya Sharma, from New Delhi, Shubhangi Swaroop from Uttar Pradesh, and Shivangi from Bihar are the three females pilots of the very first batch. They had already undergone fundamental flying training partly with Indian Air Force and partly with the Navy before the DOFT course. Among the three female pilots operationalized for MR flying, Lt Shivangi was the first to qualify as a naval pilot on 02 Dec 2019.
Their course consisted of one month of the ground training stage, which was conducted at various expert schools of SNC, and 8 months of flying training at the Dornier Squadron of SNC, INAS 550.
Rear Admiral Antony George, VSM, NM, Chief Staff Officer (Training) of SNC, was the primary guest of the occasion and presented awards to the pilots who are now totally qualified on Dornier aircraft for all functional missions.
Lt Divya Sharma & Lt Shivam Pandey were adjudged ‘First in Flying’ and ‘First in Ground’ topics. The Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (South) rolling trophy in memory of late Lt Simon George Pynomootil for the ‘A lot of spirited trainee’ existed to Lt Kumar Vikram.
This prize was set up on 18 Jun 2019 throughout the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of INAS 550 to immortalize the officer’s spirit who was a qualified Islander pilot and lost his life in a fatal air crash whilst serving the squadron on 17 May 1985.
Indian Navy’s very first batch of women pilots skyrockets high on Dornier aircraft.
