At 25 years old, Ayesha Aziz from Kashmir became the country’s youngest female passenger pilot. Coming from a region that has seen nothing but dispute, she stands as an inspiration not only to Kashmiri women but to women as a whole. Ayesha was also the youngest student pilot to get the student’s pilot license at 15 years of age.
Ayesha graduated from the Bombay Flying Club in 2017 and got her pilot’s license for flying commercial planes. She then underwent training at Russia’s Sokol Base trained to fly an MIG-29 jet the following year.
In an interview with news agency ANI, Aziz said she believed that Kashmiri Women are doing very well and have progressed in the field of education in the last few years. “Every other woman in Kashmir is doing her Masters or her doctorate. People of the Valley are doing great,” she said.
“I chose this field because I have loved travelling from a very young age and was very fascinated by flying. One gets to meet so many people. This is why I wanted to be a pilot. It is quite challenging because this is not like a normal 9-5 desk job. There is no fixed pattern and I have to constantly be ready to face new places, different types of weather, and meet new people,” Ayesha told ANI. “In this profession, one’s mental state should be very strong because you’ll be carrying 200 passengers and it is a great responsibility,” she added.
It is to be noted that, while she is the youngest female passenger pilot, Avani Chaturvedi was the youngest female pilot ever to get a pilot’s license in this country. She belongs to the IAF fighter squadron and was the first woman combat pilot along with two of her cohorts, Mohana Singh Jitarwal, and Bhawana Kanth.
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