Air India’s direct longest flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru with an all-women cockpit crew successfully landed in the southern city on Monday.
The cockpit crew consisted of four women pilots- Captain Zoya Aggarwal, Captain Papagari Thanmai, Captain Shivani Manhas and Captain Akansha Sonaware. This is the world’s longest flight (commercial) to be operated by any Indian airline.
The national carrier had said on Saturday that this flight would be the longest flight (commercial) in the world to be operated by any Indian airline and the total flight time on this route would be of more than 17 hours depending on the wind speed on that day.
The direct distance between the two cities at opposite ends of the world is 13,993 km with a time zone change of around 13.5 hours.
Sporting black uniform and donning the airline’s cap, the all-woman cockpit crew were received at the Bengaluru Airport by the team members of Air India, which had put out a banner reading a warm welcome to the guests on AI-176 plane’s inaugural flight, 11 January 2021- from San Francisco to Bengaluru.
“In a moment to cherish and celebrate, women professionals of Indian civil aviation create history,” Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said on Twitter.
“Heartiest Congratulations to Capt Zoya Aggarwal, Capt Papagari Thanmai, Capt Akansha Sonaware & Capt Shivani for flying over North Pole to land in Bengaluru from San Francisco,” he stated.
Flight AI176 departed from San Francisco in the US at around 8.30 pm (local time) on Saturday and landed at the Kempegowda International Airport at around 3.45 am (local time) on Monday.
The flight was operated with a Boeing 777-200LR aircraft with a seating capacity of 238 seats, including eight First Class, 35 Business Class,195 Economy class configuration besides four cockpit and 12 cabin crew.
