‘Made us proud’: Rahul Gandhi, Hardeep Puri on Air India’s all-women crew

The crew made history by piloting the national carrier’s inaugural San Francisco-Bengaluru flight, which is now its’s longest non-stop flight.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday congratulated Air India’s all-women cockpit crew, which piloted the national carrier’s inaugural flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru, its longest direct flight on one of the longest air travel routes in the world.

The all-women crew of AI 176 at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport (twitter.com/HardeepSPuri)

Air India's AI 176 landed at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport early on Monday. The carrier, a Boeing 777 plane, was piloted by Captain Zoya Aggarwal, who was assisted by Captains Shivani Manhas, Papgari Thanmai and Akanksha Sonaware. The crew also flew over the North Pole, making it the first flight to do so with an all-women crew.

“Congratulations to the all-women cockpit crew for completing Air India’s longest flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru over the North Pole. You have made the country proud,” Gandhi tweeted. “In a moment to cherish & celebrate, women professionals of Indian civil aviation create history. Heartiest congratulations to Capt Zoya Aggarwal, Capt Papgari Thanmai & Capt Akanksha Sonaware for flying over North Pole to land in Bengaluru from San Francisco,” Puri also tweeted.

“It was an exciting experience since it was never done before. It took almost 17 hours to reach here,” Captain Manhas said.

AI 176 left San Francisco International Airport (SFO) at 8:30pm (local) time and landed at Kempegowda International Airport at 3:07am, Air India tweeted on Monday.