Yet another proud moment for Mumbai when Captain Aarohi Pandit, a 23-year-old pilot became the world’s first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo in a Light Sports Aircraft (LSA).
Aarohi Pandit achieved the feat around midnight Monday-Tuesday (May 13-14) when she landed her tiny aircraft at Iqaluit Airport in Canada, after a gruelling 3,000 km long flight, under adverse and extreme weather conditions following take-off from Wick, Scotland (United Kingdom), with brief stopovers in Greenland and Iceland.
In above image the Indian flag was presented to Aarohi Pandit by the Indian Ambassador to Canada Vikas Swarup. (Photo: WE Expedition)
A commercial pilot and LSA licence holder, Aarohi Pandit and her best friend Keithair Misquitta left India on the Women Empower (WE) Expedition in the tiny aircraft christened ‘Mahi’.
‘Mahi’ is a tiny, single-engine Sinus 912 weighing a little of 400 kg or nearly equivalent to a Bullet motorcycle, manufactured by Pipistrel of Slovenia, and is also the first LSA registered by Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) India.
A resident of Borivali, Pandit underwent an arduous seven-month preparatory training schedule in India, Greenland, Siberia, Italy over oceans, high altitude, snow, extreme weather conditions, different terrains testing her physical and mental capabilities to undertake her circumnavigation feat.
After a brief sojourn in Canada, the WE Expedition will continue with Aarohi Pandit flying westwards to Russia, cross many a longitudes and hurdles, create or break more records, before she finally returns home by July 30, after clocking in around 37,000 km.
Article Excerpt & Photo from IndiaToday: Read more…..
