At the Tezpur air base in Assam on Saturday, President Droupadi Murmu flew her first fighter mission.
“President Droupadi Murmu took a historic sortie in a Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft at the Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam. President Murmu is the third President and second woman President to undertake such a sortie,” president’s office said in a tweet.
She was flown by Group Captain Naveen Kumar Tiwari in an Indian Air Force Sukhoi-30 MKI.
“Achcha laga (felt good),” the President told reporters after completing her 25-minute sortie.
Murmu arrived in Tezpur from Guwahati after travelling to Assam for three days.
Air Marshal S. P. Dharkar, Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma met her at the air base.
Murmu was given a ceremony of honour by IAF members following her landing at Tezpur, and then she had a formal briefing on her flight in the Sukhoi.
She then reached the hangar wearing the flying suit, and waved to the waiting journalists before climbing the ladder to board the aircraft.
Together with her pilot and other officials, the president took pictures in front of the plane.
A female officer assisted her in donning the helmet and completing other formalities once she had sat in the cockpit. Just before the aeroplane canopy closed, she waved from the pilot’s seat.
After the 25-minute flight, she got off of the plane, posed for a photo with the group captain, and waved to the reporters who were waiting.
Although the president had no planned media appearances, she said, “achcha laga” (felt well), when a waiting reporter inquired about the sortie.
After APJ Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil, Murmu is the third president to fly a sortie in a fighter jet. But her predecessors had gotten their trips from the air base in Pune.
Prasanta Patnaik