Meet Flt Lt Mohana Singh, She Flies The Hawk Jets

Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh is one of India's first women to pilot missions on the Hawk advanced Jet Aircraft during the daytime. As she landed after completing the last portion of her syllabus of being fully operational on the Hawk Jets, she created history to qualify for undertaking such missions. She landed after a ‘4 Aircraft Combat Sortie’ at Air Force Station, Kalaikunda in West Bengal.

Both air to air and air to combat missions were included in her training. She has also undertaken a number of practice missions which involved firing of rockets, guns and dropping high calibre bombs. Additionally, she also participated in many Air Force level exercises.  Of the 500 hours which she spent in incident-free flying, 380 hours she spent flying the Hawk MK 132 Jet.

Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh among the first Indian women to qualify for undertaking missions by Hawk advanced Jet Aircraft during the daytime.

She belongs to the first batch of women fighter pilots of IAF

Along with Flight Lieutenant Avani Chaturvedi and Flight Lieutenant Bhawana Kanth, Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh also belongs to the first batch of the women fighter pilots of IAF.

She joined IAF in 2016

Mohana Singh along with Bhawana Kanth and Avani Chaturvedi was commissioned in the Indian Air Force by then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. After the government of India decided to open the selection of women in the Indian Air Force, these three were the first in the list to be selected.

Parrikar described the induction of these three young women in the air force as Red Letter Day. He had also emphasised on the fact that his ministry is working towards bringing total gender parity in the armed forces.

• IAF’s All Women Crew Creates History, Flies A Medium Lift Helicopter

The recent women centric ‘firsts’ in IAF’s history

Flt Lt Parul Bharadwaj (Captain), Flying Officer Aman Nidhi (Co-Pilot) and Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal (Flight Engineer) became country’s first ‘All Women Crew’ to fly a medium lift helicopter. Flt Lt. Parul Bharadwaj is also the first woman to fly the Mi-17 V5 helicopter. She hails from Punjab’s Mukerian. Interestingly, Flying Officer Aman Nidhi is also the first woman IAF pilot from Jharkhand. She hails from Ranchi in Jharkhand. Moreover, Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal is also the first woman flight engineer of the Indian Air Force. She hails from Chandigarh.

Also Read: Flt Lt Bhawana Kanth Became The First Woman To Qualify For Combat Missions

Flight Lieutenant Bhawana Kanth became the first woman fighter pilot who is capable of undertaking any mission during daytime. She completed her training on Wednesday, 22 May which includes operational syllabus for carrying out combat missions on MiG-21 Bison aircraft. Bhawana is also the first woman to be commissioned in the Indian Air Force as a Woman Fighter Pilot in 2016. Once she completes the operational syllabus for the night time missions, she will then be able to undertake missions at night too. Kanth was inducted in the Fighter Squadron in November 2017 and was the one to fly Mig-21 alone last year in March. In the process, she also became the second woman pilot of Indian Air Force to fly solo in a fighter aircraft.

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