An all-female crew operated the world's longest continuous flight this week, from Delhi to San Francisco, in honor of International Women's Day.
Flight AI 73 on India's national carrier, Air India, travelled a distance of 14,500 kilometres over 17 hours. It took off from Delhi on March 6 and landed in San Francisco the following day; the crew flew back to Delhi on March 8.
The flight was helmed by Captains Kshamta Bajpayee and Shubhangi Singh. All the on-board positions on the flight -- including the pilots, cabin crew, check-in staff, doctor, customer care, air traffic control and ground crew -- were held by women.
"It will be a historic flight and the longest to be operated by all women crew," Ashwini Lohani, the CMD of Air India, said. "The airline has immense respect for women and it would be a symbol of women empowerment."
Air India celebrates International Women's Day each year by operating select flights in its international and domestic routes with female crew members. The airline has around 3,765 female employees, including pilots, engineers, technicians, doctors, security personnel and cabin crew.
#AI women pilots of longest flt with Mr Sandeep Choudhary, AI Station Manager at SFO Apt. #AISalutesWomen pic.twitter.com/hqJoORpeCo
— Air India (@airindiain) March 7, 2016
On #WomensDay ,My sand art dedicated to women crew of #AI173 for world's longest All-Women flight for #worldrecord pic.twitter.com/gRJqkWQHeo
— sudarsan pattnaik (@sudarsansand) March 8, 2016