Aarohi Pandit, ‘the Mumbai girl’, as she is called now has created history by becoming the first women pilot ever to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. She achieved this feat, flying in a Light Sports Aircraft (LSA). By Kumar Shree
Aarohi started her flight from the Unalakleet city in Alaska and landed at Russia’s Anadyr Airport in the far east region of Chukotka. She also halted for a stopover at Nome in Alaska. Aarohi posed before her LSA with the Indian flag to celebrate her feat. Notably, this is not the first of Aarohi’s achievements. In the past thirteen months she has broken and created many records in her circumnavigating flight. Being the world’s first women to complete a solo flight over the very coveted and demanding Greenland is one of her many achievements.
Aarohi’s flight from Unalakleet to Anadyr was of 1,100 km, where she had to fly across the Line of Confusion, that is the International Date Line. This is the line where the date changes and the same made for the most challenging leg of Aarohi’s flight, where Aarohi took off after her stopover from Nome at 2 pm on a Tuesday and just after a three-hour-and-50 minutes flight, landed at Anadyr airport, where it was Wednesday. Recounting her experience, Aarohi said, “I lost one day of my life, which I will never get back.”
Aarohi holds an Indian commercial pilot’s license and an LSA license. She along with her friend Keithair Misquitta, who is also a pilot, together launched the world’s first all-woman team to circumnavigate the Earth on July 30, 2018. They opted for achieving the feat in an LSA. They have named their LSA, ‘Mahi’, which is a single engine Sinus 912 aircraft and weighs less than that of a Bullet motorcycle. It is also the first LSA to be registered with the Director-General of Civil Aviation, DGCA of India.
We hope that Aarohi Pandit and her team keeps achieving more feats, breaking old records and creating many new ones. All the best Aarohi!
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