Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal on Friday became the first Indian Woman Flight Engineer of the Indian Air Force. Hina completed the six-month flight engineer course from the 112 Helicopter Unit attached to the Air Force Station in Yelahanka in Bengaluru.

A flight engineer is the member of an aircraft’s flight crew who monitors and operates its complex aircraft systems requiring a specialised skill set. Earlier restricted to men, the flight engineer branch was opened to women officers in 2018. During the course of six months of gruelling training, she trained shoulder to shoulder with her male counterparts and displayed unflinching commitment, dedication and perseverance, a press release by the defence ministry states.

Hina will now be posted to a helicopter squadron where she will monitor and operate IAF’s complex aircraft in various conditions, including the Siachen Glacier and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a press release by the Defence Ministry states.

Born in Chandigarh, Hina was commissioned in the engineering batch of the IAF on January 5, 2015. Jaiswal has served as the chief of firing team and the battery commander in a frontline surface to Air Missile Squadron.

Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal hails from Chandigarh and has completed her Bachelors of Engineering degree from  University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) Panjab University. She is the only daughter of DK Jaiswal, who recently retired from the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA), New Delhi, and Anita Jaiswal, a homemaker and has dubbed her achievement as a “dream come true.” Since childhood, Hina had aspired to don the soldier’s uniform and take on the skies as an aviator. Hina is enthusiastic about her stint in aviation and looks forward to embracing challenges with open arms, the press release states.

In the last few decades, the Indian defence forces have taken long strides to become more gender inclusive. The Indian Air Force since 1993, has commissioned women in the officer cadre and they have also been successfully inducted as pilots in various streams of the IAF.