New Delhi
After a two-and-a-half-year gap, President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday soared into the skies yet again in a fighter jet.
The President, the supreme commander of the Indian armed forces, took a sortie in the much-touted Rafale fighter jet from the Ambala Air Force Base in Haryana. By doing so, she became the only President, and a tribal woman at that, to take sorties in two different fighter jets of India. Murmu became India’s first tribal woman President in July 2022.
It was on April 8, 2023 that Murmu had undertaken a sortie in the Russian-made Sukhoi-30 MKI from the Tezpur Air Force Station, Assam, becoming the third President and the second woman head of state to do so.
Former president APJ Abdul Kalam had undertaken a sortie in a Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft from the Air Force Station, Lohegaon near Pune on June 8, 2006 while her successor Pratibha Patil did so from the same station on November 25, 2009.
President Droupadi Murmu’s sortie in a prized Rafale is also symbolic since the fleet was used against Pakistan during Operation Sindoor in response to the April 22 dastardly Pahalgam terror attack.
She waved to the spectators as her jet taxied for the take-off. She flew in a two-seater variant of the French-made aircraft with a IAF senior pilot managing the controls.
“The sortie on Rafale is an unforgettable experience for me. This first flight on the potent Rafale aircraft has instilled in me a renewed sense of pride in the nation’s defence capabilities. I congratulate the Indian Air Force and the entire team of Air Force Station, Ambala for organising this sortie successfully,” the President wrote.
The 30-minute flight covered nearly 200 km at 15,000 ft at about 700 km/hour. Manufactured by French aerospace major Dassault Aviation, Rafale fighter aircraft were formally inducted into the Indian Air Force in September 2020 at the Air Force Station, Ambala. They are part of the 17 Squadron, the ‘Golden Arrows’.
Earlier, in 2023 she flew for approximately 30 minutes in Sukhoi covering Brahmaputra and Tezpur valley with a view of the Himalayas before returning to the Air Force Station. Asked how she felt, she replied: “Achcha laga (felt good)”.
Later in the visitor’s book, she wrote, “It was an exhilarating experience for me to fly in the mighty Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force. It is a matter of pride that India’s defence capabilities have expanded immensely to cover all the frontiers of land, air and sea. I congratulate the Indian Air Force and the entire team of Air Force Station Tezpur for organising this sortie.”
