IAF’s women transport pilots outperform men
BANGALORE: Women pilots in the transport squadrons of the Indian Air Force are outperforming their male colleagues and winning accolades from the top brass.
“Women pilots are proving highly competitive and have been performing exceedingly well” according to Air Marshal T J Masters, Air Officer Commanding in Chief of Air Force Training Command here.
Masters told a visiting groups of reporters that the women transport pilots’ flying schedule to and over Siachen — the world’s highest battlefield — had been worth putting on record.
“They volunteer to be on the frontline for most of the time”, Air Marshal Masters said adding IAF was now considering a proposal to induct women in all ranks.
He said Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A Y Tipnis had described the experience of having women pilots in the Air Force as excellent adding “their future in the force is assured”.
Asked about the percentage of women in the force, Masters said IAF had the largest level of women compared to other services.
On whether women in the ranks may pose gender based leadership crises, Masters disagreed with the suggestion asserting that such problems arose even when you had an all male cadre.
Air Commodore K S Sudan, commandant of the Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine who evaluate pilots, said women pilots were far too quick in technology absorption.