Historic Air India flight, manned by all-women cockpit crew, takes off from San Francisco for Bengaluru

Bengaluru: An all-women cockpit crew set out on a history journey, operating Air India's inaugural San Francisco-Bengaluru flight, going over the North Pole and taking the Atlantic route to reach the Karnataka capital at the other end of the world.

Flight number AI176 left San Francisco on Saturday at 8.30 pm (local time) and would arrive in Bengalurur at 3.45 am on Monday, according to Air India sources.

#FlyAI : AI 176 gets airborne from @flySFO, climbing to an initial altitude of 30000 ft under the command of
Capt Zoya Agarwal.

Thus begins a historic 15154 km and more than 17 hrs voyage over the North Pole, connecting San Francisco to @BLRAirport . pic.twitter.com/5HjoXMIF7C

— Air India (@airindiain) January 10, 2021

Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted, "Way to go girls! Professional, qualified  and confident, the all-women cockpit crew takes off from San Francisco to Bengaluru on @airindiain's flight to fly over the North Pole.Our Nari Shakti achieves a historic first."

Way to go girls!
Professional, qualified & confident, the all women cockpit crew takes off from San Francisco to Bengaluru on @airindiain's flight to fly over North Pole.
Our Nari Shakti achieves a historic first. pic.twitter.com/X46cs73dQu

— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) January 10, 2021

Air India has said this will be the longest commercial flight in the world to be operated by it or any other airline in India. The total flight time on this route will be more than 17 hours depending on the wind speed on that particular day, it had said in a statement on the eve of the historic flight.

Members of the crew are: Captain Zoya Aggarwal, Captain Papagari Thanmai, Captain Akansha Sonaware and Captain Shivani Manhas.

Air India too expressed its elation when it tweeted:

#FlyAI : Imagine this :

-All Women Cockpit Crew.
-Longest flight into India.
-Crossing the North Pole

It’s here & happening!
Records broken.

History in the making by AI176 from @flySFO to @BLRAirport.

AI 176 is cruising at 30000 feet pic.twitter.com/kZ66hqiatq

— Air India (@airindiain) January 10, 2021