Captain Zoya Aggarwal, who is a senior Air India pilot of aircraft Boeing-777 is the first Indian woman pilot to take an aircraft above the North pole. She secured a Guinness world record achieving a distance of about 16,000 km, which made her place in SFO aviation museum on Friday.
It was the first time ever, in 2021, that an all women pilot team of Air India led by Zoya covered the world’s longest air route from San Francisco in the United States of America to Bengaluru city in India, covering the North Pole.
This accomplishment byAll India’s women pilots impressed the US-based aviation museum and hence, they offered her a place in their museum. They felicitated the pilot for her marvellous career and her contribution in promoting women’s empowerment throughout the world.
Captain Zoya Agarwal said that she is the sole human to have gotten a place as a pilot in the San Francisco Aviation A Turpen Aviation museum which is commonly known as SFO Aviation Museum.
“I was amazed to see that I’m the only living object over there, I am just humbled honestly. I can’t believe that I am a part of a prestigious aviation museum in the USA,” said Zoya.
An official from the San Francisco Aviation museum said
“She is the first female Indian pilot to be included in our program. In addition to her remarkable career with Air India, including her record-breaking flight from SFO to Bengaluru in 2021 with an all-female crew, her positivity about the world and her commitment to helping other girls and women achieve their dreams is deeply inspiring. Being able to record and share Captain Agarwal’s personal history allows SFO Museum to preserve the excitement and the historic nature of her extraordinary career with current and future generations of aviation enthusiasts. We are honoured by your participation, and we hope to educate and inspire future generations “
The star of the evening, Zoya Agarwal also commented upon her fear after receiving the certificate and being honoured by the SFO aviation museum for her extraordinary career in aviation. She said “I can’t believe that I am the first Indian female to be in a museum in the USA, if you ask the eight-year-old girl that used to sit on her terrace, looking at stars and dream about being a pilot. It’s an honour that the US recognised an Indian woman for their museum… it’s a great moment for me and my country,”
Captain Zoya is also one of the gender equality spokespersons at the UN. She has encouraged females and youth to chase their dreams. The museum was inaugurated at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in 1980. It has over the years emerged as a dynamic exhibition program with galleries throughout all five terminals and curated an ever growing collection of objects. The museum contains more than 150,000 objects related to the history of SFO and commercial aviation.
It is meanwhile a proud thing for India that the participation of women pilots in India has increased rapidly. The International Society of Women Airlines says that India holds the largest number of female pilots in the world.
