Indian Air Force fighter pilots Air Commodore Sanjay Sharma and Flying Officer Ananya Sharma scripted history when they became the first father and daughter in the IAF to fly together on a sortie.

They flew in a formation of British-origin Hawk-132 advanced jet trainers at the Bidar airbase in Karnataka on May 30 but this singular historic event went unnoticed. It was only after their images appeared in the social media, that the news and the picture went viral.

Commissioned in IAF in 1989, Air Commodore Sharma has had an extensive experience of fighter operations, having commanded a Mig-21 Squadron as well as a frontline fighter station.

His daughter was commissioned as a fighter pilot in 2021, is at present training on the Hawk AJT will move to superior fighter aircraft of IAF soon. Ananya made it to IAF’s flying branch after completing her B Tech in Electronics and Communication.

Commenting on flying with his daughter, Sharma called it as the “biggest day of his life”.

It was this year in February that the Government decided to convert the experimental scheme of 2015 to recruit women as fighter pilots as a permanent measure. Since the implementation of the scheme in 2016, 20 women have been commissioned as fighter pilots.

Women are now flying IAF’s latest Rafale jets, MiG-21s, Sukhoi-30s and MiG-29 fighters. India’s first Rafale pilot, Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh, was part of the IAF tableau in this year’s Republic Day Parade.