Wing Commander Vyomika Singh leads from the front in press briefing post Operation Sindoor
Singh had earlier told a private news channel that given her name, she felt she was destined to fly and become a pilot
Wing Commander Vyomika Singh (Photo: @airnewsalerts / X)
New Delhi, May 7: Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian Air Force (IAF) addressed the press on Wednesday in New Delhi, alongside Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, following India's execution of ‘Operation Sindoor’ against Pakistan on the intervening night of Wednesday.
Singh, a helicopter pilot, has flown a wide range of aircraft and has participated in numerous rescue operations under extreme conditions to evacuate civilians.
In retaliation to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, the Indian armed forces in the wee hours of Wednesday morning carried out precision missile strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). These included the Jaish-e Mohammad base of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e Taiba’s base in Muridke.
A total of nine terror targets were successfully hit during the missile strikes.
The strikes were part of 'Operation Sindoor', launched two weeks after the brutal massacre of 26 people, mostly tourists, in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.
At the media briefing, the two women officers -- Vyomika Singh and Sofiya Qureshi -- sat on the dais flanked by foreign secretary Vikram Misri, who delivered the government's official statement on the operation.
The two officers then shared details of the targets destroyed by Indian forces.
Vyomika, who's married to a fellow Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot, had earlier shared in a 2023 panel discussion how her name perhaps shaped her destiny to become a pilot.
"I was in Class-6 when the Eureka moment happened -- I realised I wanted to be a pilot and own the sky. We were having a discussion in the class on the meaning of names. Somebody shouted, 'You are Vyomika, which means you own the sky'. Since that day, I wanted to be a pilot. This was in early 1990s," Vyomika recalled during the panel discussion.
The discussion, which celebrated the spirit of 'Nari Shakti', also touched upon her journey into the IAF and how she earned her wings.
From dreaming to be a pilot, to logging over 2,500 flying hours, Vyomika has piloted several helicopters across some of India's most challenging terrains, from the high-altitude sectors in Jammu and Kashmir to the remote corners of the Northeast.
In 2020, she led a rescue operation in Arunachal Pradesh, flying in extreme conditions to evacuate civilians.
"It has been an excellent experience (in the IAF), and I love it," the IAF officer told the private channel, as she shared describing what it means to fly in challenging conditions.
- With inputs from news agencies