Team News Riveting
Air India is all set to kick start its inaugural flight from Bengaluru to San Francisco (BLR-SFO) with a cockpit staffed entirely by women.
The longest non-stop flight service flying over the North Pole will start from 9 January.
The airline has rostered four of its highly experienced women pilots to fly a Boeing 777-200. They are Captains Akanksha Sonwane, Shivani Manhas, Thanmai Papagari and Zoya Agrawal.
The crew also includes AI’s Executive Director of flight safety, Captain Nivedita Bhasin. Captain Zoya Agrawal, the youngest woman pilot to fly a Boeing-777 in 2013, will be commanding the flight that will cover 16000 km.
The longest flight over the North Pole will be another feather in her cap. “However, it depends upon the weather condition to take the North Pole route,” the AI officials said. Though Air India pilots have flown over polar routes earlier also, it is for the first time a team of women pilots will take the route.
Two sets of two pilots will operate the flight by turn. On International Women’s Day in 2016, Air India set records by operating an all-women crew flight from Delhi to San Francisco, the longest route then. It covers about 1,000km less than BLR-SFO.
Air India was also the first-ever carrier ever to operate an all-women crew flight from Calcutta to Silchar in 1985.
