India Celebrates International Women's Day With All-Woman Operated Historic Flight

By M. Santhiran NEW DELHI, March 8 (Bernama) -- For the women of India, the sky is the limit as they mark International Women's Day Tuesday. As the event is celebrated globally with conferences, seminars and prayers, the gentler sex in India created history in marking the event with an all-woman operated longest flight route, taking off from New Delhi to San Francisco, United States. In a media statement, Air India said it marked the first time an all-woman cabin crew were on board such a flight route - the world's longest non-stop flight - of the Indian national carrier. It said the flight which took off from the Indian capital on March 6, spanned a distance of about 14,500km non-stop, taking almost 17 hours. “This year for the first time, on the world’s longest non-stop flight, the entire flight operations from cockpit crew to cabin crew, check-in staff, doctor, customer care staff, ATC (air traffic control) and the entire ground handling...were all handled by women,” it added. According to the statement, the airline operates a few flights with entirely female crew every year on International Women’s Day. Last year, Air India operated four all-woman crew flights to international and domestic destinations, with one flown by two pilots who were also part of a similar feat of Delhi-Melbourne way back in 1985. To mark the achievement of women, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee said all Indians must respect the right of women to equal opportunities and a dignified life. "We have a collective responsibility to create an ecosystem that ensures the safety, security and dignity of women in our society," he said. -- BERNAMA