All-Women Pilot Crew Makes History With Longest Flight

Air India has added a new route, it’s longest direct flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru, India. The very first non-stop flight connecting the two tech cities landed Monday and made history in the process because of the all-women cockpit crew.

There were four female pilots commanding the plane in the nearly 17-hour landmark trip: Captain Zoya Agarwal, Captain Papagiri Thanmei, Captain Akanksha and Captain Shivani. They took off from California and flew a distance of nearly 10-thousand miles over the North Pole before landing at Kempegowda International Airport in India. According to Air India, this will be the longest commercial flight in the world to be operated by them or any other airline in India.

“Today, we created world history by not only flying over the North Pole but also by having all women pilots who successfully did it,” said Captain Zoya Aggarwal. “We are extremely happy and proud to be part of it.”