Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh became the first woman fighter pilot of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to fly a Hawk advanced jet aircraft.
On the 31st of May, a defence release was issued which stated, “Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh became the first woman fighter pilot to become fully operational by day on Hawk advanced jet aircraft as she landed after a gruelling 4 aircraft combat sortie at Air Force station Kalaikunda, West Bengal, which was the last syllabus sortie, of being fully operational on the Hawk Jets.”
Flight Lieutenant Mohana achieved the feat at the Kalaikunda Air Force Station, West Bengal, on the 30th of May, following which, she became fully operational to fly the Hawk jet.
During Flight Lieutenant Mohana’s training as fighter pilot, she learnt firing rockets, guns and dropping bombs. She was also trained for flying air to air combat and air to ground combat missions.
Apart from these, she also has an experience of 500 hours of incident free flying, out of which, for 380 hours, she flew the Hawk MK 132 jet.
Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh joined the Indian Air Force Fighter Squadron in 2016. She was also one of the women pilots who were selected for the trial IAF fighter stream.
