Sqn Ldr Teji Uppal, Sqn Ldr Nidhi Handa and Sqn Ldr Veena Saharan with an IL-76 transport aircraft at the Chandigarh Air Force Station on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan
IAF’s women pilot touch new heights
While one lands at world’s highest strip, other captains IL-76
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 24
As an AN-32 rumbled through freezing early morning winds to touch down upon a desolate, dirt strip amidst snow-capped Himalayan peaks a few days ago, it marked another milestone in the history of military aviation. At the controls was Sqn Ldr Teji Uppal, who became the first woman pilot to land at Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO), the world’s highest airstrip.
Located at an altitude of 18,500 feet at the easternmost point of the Karakoram range at the base of strategically significant Karakoram pass and just about 10 km from the Karakoram Highway that connects China with Pakistan, DBO is situated in a bowl. This requires an irregular overhead circuit pattern with hill clearance of just about 400 feet.
“At the moment of touchdown, there are so functional things going on in your mind that you don’t have time to think about why you have done,” Sdn Ldr Uppal said. “The sense of accomplishment and elation come in only later when the aircraft stops and your mind if off the controls,” she added.
Hailing from Ludhiana, the daughter of an Army officer, she has flown extensively in the northeast as well as Jammu and Kashmir and her missions include operations sorties to unpaved advance landing grounds as well as drop sorties over Siachen Glacier. This, according to Air Cmde SC Chafekar, Air Officer Commanding 12 Wing, makes her the only woman aviator who is qualified to fly independently to almost all forward bases in the country.
Moving from twin-engine aircraft into the league of the “Big Boys” is Sqn Ldr Veena Saharan, who has become the first woman pilot to captain an IL-76 strategic freighter, the largest aircraft in the IAF’s inventory. She is the first and the only woman IAF pilot to be at the controls of an IL-76.
Daughter of an Army officer and married to an Army doctor, she was recently cleared for IL-76 operations to high altitude areas after her squadron move to Chandigarh and has become the first woman officer to land a military multi-engine at Leh. She moved to the IL-76 as a co-pilot in 2009 and has since logged 600 hours on this aircraft.
“Flying is exciting but also calls for a high degree of professionalism and judgement. In the cockpit, you regularly encounter varying situations and if you don’t react appropriately and in time, some of them can become life threatening,” she said. She joined the services due to her family background and chose the Air Force over Army because the Army Aviation Corps did not take women officer at the time of her joining.
For Sqn Ldr Nidhi Handa, the first in her family to join the services and also the first woman IAF pilot from Himachal Pradesh, every moment and every task has been challenging. “While flying, a lot of unforeseen situations keep cropping up, but you have to handle them,” she said after having logged 3,400 hours, including overseas stints and operations in the Andamans.
All women pilots are performing the same role as their male counterparts. They have actively participated in military exercises as well as aid to civil authorities in times of natural calamities or internal disturbances, often carrying out multiple landing in a day to airlift relief material and evacuate casualties. “Often during relief operations, the aircraft engines are kept running to reduce the turn-around time for faster evacuation,” she said.
airforcechat 