Mohana Singh

Some Lesser Known Facts About Mohana Singh

• While growing up, she participated in various sports and activities including roller skating, badminton, singing, and painting.

• Her grandfather has served as a flight gunner with the Aviation Research Centre of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and was posthumously awarded the Vir Chakra.

• She considers her grandfather to be the inspiration for her to join the Indian Air Force.

• After completing her education, she joined the IT company Cognizant, while simultaneously preparing for the entrance examination of the Indian Air Force.

• On 18 June 2016, she joined the first batch of women pilots selected for the fighter pilot squadron of the Indian Air Force (IAF) along with Avani Chaturvedi and Bhawna Kanth.

• On 14 July 2018, she was commissioned in the Indian Air Force by the former Minister of Defence of India, Manohar Parrikar during the Combined Graduation Parade ceremony at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal, Telangana.

• In an interview, she described the troubles she faced in distinguishing between the sky and land during her first sector solo sortie (aircraft flight) due to the darkness in the sky and lighting on the ground.

• She then remembered her instructor’s words to trust her instruments and landed safely.

• In 2019, she became the first female pilot to fly a Hawk Mk.132 advanced jet trainer at Bidar Air Force Station during the daytime.

• In September 2024, she became the first Indian woman pilot to join the Indian Air Force’s esteemed No. 18 Squadron (Flying Bullets) which is equipped with indigenously developed Tejas fighter jets and operates from Gujarat’s Naliya air base.

• In 2024, she was a part of the ‘Tarang Shakti’ exercise held at Jodhpur, Rajasthan, where she provided instructions to the vice chiefs of the Indian Army and Navy on flying the Tejas fighter jet.

• She is well-trained in air-to-air and air-to-combat missions.