Aarohi Pandit has been glued to her iPhone and Macbook, binge-watching movies and documentaries over the past 10 months. Not unusual for a 23-year-old, except these distractions come during the breaks in a mission unlike any undertaken by an Indian woman.

After clocking 120 hours of flying across 18 countries and 37,000km over the past 10 months, Aarohi made history on Monday when she landed at Iqaluit airport in Canada at 6.29pm to become the first Indian woman — and perhaps the only woman in the world — to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo in a light sport aircraft.

Her eco-friendly, ultralight Sinus 912 is the first light sports aircraft registered in India.

Built in Slovenia in 2016, Aarohi Pandit’s Sinus 912 aircraft weighs less than a family of four and is meant to be exceptionally fuel efficient. Formally registered as VT-NBF, the plane was named Mahi (“great planet Earth” in Sanskrit). “It’s a single engine, two-seater... with a high wing and tricycle design. Its strutless motor glider is made for gliding and equipped with a ballistic parachute in case of emergency landing, a glass cockpit with advanced avionics and special satellite trackers,” said Lynn de Souza, founder of Social Access Communications that conceived and executed the expedition.

When Aarohi embarked on the expedition on July 30 last year, she had for company her “best friend” and “fellow pilot” Keithair Misquitta, 24, who was by her side through the first four phases of the expedition. Aarohi, a resident of Borivli, was born in Baroda and grew up in Mumbai with dreams of steering an aircraft since she was eight while Keithair comes from an typical East Indian family in Mumbai with a father who encouraged his daughter to become a pilot. Both met at the Bombay Flying Club while training for their commercial pilot licence.

Aarohi, who is part of the world’s first all-woman team circumnavigating the planet in a light sport aircraft, was selected from among eight contenders. “She was then trained to fly the aircraft in Serbia along with Keithair,” said De Souza.

Taking off from Patiala last year, Aarohi and Keithair set course for the expedition across Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat and then to Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Serbia, Slovenia, Germany, France, UK, Faroe Islands and Iceland before landing in Kulusuk, Greenland, where they parted ways. Their expedition director in this first phase was Rahul Monga, a former IAF helicopter pilot who teaches aviation and is the only Indian to have circumnavigated the globe in a microlight, back in 2008.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing . Two months and 27 stops later, they had to return to Mumbai after being grounded in Greenland in unnaturally harsh weather. To take on the North Atlantic Ocean and the Greenland icecap — perhaps the most challenging leg of the expedition — required extra precautions.

Given the cramped space inside the tiny cockpit, which is equipped with a survival kit including an oxygen system, life jacket, and a life raft strapped to the co-pilot’s seat, thus leaving space for only one pilot in the cockpit, Aarohi was picked for the transatlantic crossing.

It was in March that Aarohi returned to the Danish Island to resume the expedition abandoned five months ago. She flew the tiny, lightweight Mahi from Wick in Scotland to Iqaluit in Canada in five legs, stopping at Hofn and Reykjavik in Iceland and navigating the treacherous ice caps at Kulusuk and Nuuk in Greenland.

“I’m so honoured and grateful that I could do this for my country and for women everywhere. Flying over the Atlantic Ocean has been a humbling experience. It’s just you and your little plane, with the light blue sky above and the dark blue sea or shining white ice below. Certain parts were bumpy but the beauty of the ocean and the islands was breathtaking. The challenging bit was of course the north Atlantic part but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!” says Aarohi, a fan of the legendary Amelia Earhart, the first woman in the world to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Currently recovering from the 4.5-hour flight in Iqaluit, Aarohi will continue westward over Canada, US, Russia, China and Southeast Asia , before she’s joined by Keithair for the last phase of what could be the “first ever Indian civilian circumnavigation in a non-commercial aircraft”. Aarohi doesn’t want to spell out her flying goals yet but she knows what tops her priority list at the moment. “The first thing I want to do is eat yellow dal and rice once I’m home,” she laughs.

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