The Indian Navy has operationalized its first batch of women pilots on Dornier Aircraft by the Southern Naval Command at Kochi. Lieutenant Divya Sharma from New Delhi, Lieutenant Shubhangi Swaroop from Uttar Pradesh and Lieutenant Shivangi from Bihar are the three women pilots of the first batch.
The three women pilots were part of the Dornier Operational Flying Training (DOFT) Course, who graduated as ‘Fully operational Maritime Reconnaissance (MR) Pilots. The pilots had undergone basic flying training partly with the Indian Air Force and partly with the Navy prior to DOFT course.
The course comprised one month of ground training phase conducted at various professional schools of SNC and eight months of flying training at the Dornier Squadron of SNC, INAS 550.