Meet Bhawna Chaudhary who made history in BSF Air Wing, is first woman to…, has been awarded by DG with…
Inspector Bhawna Chaudhary created history after becoming the first woman flight engineer of BSF air wing. After completing two months of flight training, he was awarded a flight badge by the BSF General Directorate.
Bhawna Chaudhary makes history as BSF’s first woman flight engineer
The Border Security Force (BSF) air wing has achieved a breakthrough in its over 50-year history by inducting its first woman flight engineer following the completion of the in-house training capsule that made Inspector Bhawna Chaudhary ready for flight operations. Recognizing their talent, BSF director general Daljit Singh Chawdhary awarded flying badges to Chaudhury and his four male subordinates. The border force has been tasked with operating the aviation unit of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) since 1969 and caters to the operational requirements of all paramilitary forces and special forces such as NSG and NDRF.
How was Bhawna Chaudhary’s education?
While posting about the historic moment on BSF’s official X account, the group wrote: “BSF Air Wing successfully conducted in-house initial training of Flight Engineers. Five trainee Flight Engineers, including one Mahila SO, were conferred flying brevets by DG BSF during the Farewell Ceremony held in New Delhi.”
Officials told PTI that the five junior officers were “initially trained by BSF air wing instructors and had completed their two-month training recently”. During the two-month in-house training, five personnel received 130 hours of rigorous training. The training began in August, when these personnel got a hands-on experience of the job when various units of the BSF air wing flew operational sorties, including during the recent floods in Punjab and other states.
“BSF air wing is facing critical shortage of flight engineers in its Mi-17 helicopter fleet. Indian Air Force (IAF) trained the first batch of 3 junior officers, but the second batch of five personnel could not find a training slot here due to various constraints,” an official said. The official told PTI that in such a situation, the BSF has asked the MHA to allow it to organize an in-house training for the remaining five personnel to prepare them to become flight engineers in its air wing.
The unit operates helicopters such as the Mi-17 1V, Mi-17 V5, Cheetah and ALH Dhruv, as well as the fixed-wing Embraer jet for VIP missions.
