January 28, 2021

Longest direct flight with all-woman cockpit crew lands in Bengaluru

This is the world’s longest commercial flight to be operated by any Indian airline. On Saturday, the national carrier had said on this route, the total flight time would be of more than 17 hours depending on the wind speed on that day. Between the two cities, the direct distance is 13,993 kilometres with a time zone change of approximately 13.5 hours, according to a PTI report.

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.

On Monday, the longest direct flight of Air India (AI-176), from San Francisco to Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport successfully landed with an all-woman cockpit crew. 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 commercial flight to be operated by any Indian airline. On Saturday, the national carrier had said on this route, the total flight time would be of more than 17 hours depending on the wind speed on that day. Between the two cities, the direct distance is 13,993 kilometres with a time zone change of approximately 13.5 hours, according to a PTI report.