Girl who chased jets now IAF's first woman Fighter Combat Leader
Squadron Leader Bhawana Kanth has become the first woman in the Indian Air Force to qualify as a Fighter Combat Leader. Her achievement follows a lifelong ambition that began with a childhood fascination with aircraft.
Why it matters
This milestone represents a significant advancement for gender equality within the Indian military's combat aviation branch.
As a little girl, Bhawana Kanth did not know much about aircraft. She remembers seeing a jet in the sky and running after it, trying to follow it for as long as she could. The aircraft would eventually disappear into the horizon, but the fascination it sparked stayed with her. “It all started probably when I was about 3 or 4 years old and I remember seeing a jet, as the kids would call it, little did I know it was just an aircraft,” she recalled. “So, you know, we would just run behind the jet at full speed till such time, continue to look at it and, you know, it just merged with the horizon.
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