NEW DELHI: February 4, 2012 is an iconic day for Indian aviation. This day, for the first time ever, two

flew a chopper off a ship,

. It may sound easy but think about landing or flying a helicopter off a helipad that is in continuous motion, rolling, pitching, yawing and heaving in every possible direction. The only women helicopter operators in the Indian Coast Guard, assistant commandants Ruchi Sangwan and Bhawana Rana are now proud holders of the

(DLQ) that recognizes their ability to do just that.

Sangwan comes from the sleepy town of Charkhi Dadri in Haryana that shot to recognition in 1996 due to a mid-air collision over it. Sangwan was only 11-years-old then but she decided that she wanted to be a pilot. Her parents, both government school teachers, were very supportive of their daughter’s decision but had no money to fund her extremely expensive education. “I took a loan of Rs 10 lakh from the bank and went to

Ahmedabad to get my commercial pilot licence. My parents are extremely proud of me now,” she says.

Sangwan and Rana joined the coast guard in January 2010. As the only women in the male dominated sector, the two say they receive no special treatment. “Our seniors are very supportive. When we joined service, we were apprehensive about becoming chopper pilots. It would have meant that we stay on ships for some length of time. Now we are enjoying it thoroughly,” says Rana.

Rana belongs to Vajghera village in Haryana and completed her schooling from Gurgaon. Her brother too dreamt of becoming a pilot but she was the one to make it. “The recession in the aviation sector is partly responsible for putting me where I am. I obtained my CPL in the US and when I returned to India I started applying to commercial airlines for a job. At that time, I also responded to an advertisement for the coast guard and got selected,” she says.

The women have been involved in several rescue missions. Sangwan’s last operation was when a bus fell into a river in Goa on February 18. “A senior commandant and I flew out first but since the information reached us 30 minutes after the accident, we were unable to save anyone. I have been a part of three search and rescue missions,” she says.

In Delhi for the celebration of the International Women’s Day organised by the

and the Aeronautical Society of India, the two discussed the demands of their chosen profession. “Normally, there are no women on ships and no women pilots operate choppers. Only Air Force has women helicopter fliers. The Army has none and the Navy had none. We are the only two in the coast guard now. If a rescue mission is far off, a helicopter needs to go by ship since its own flying limit is about 2.5 hours,” says Sangwan.

The Indian Women Pilots’ Association said: “The coast guard routinely operates helicopters from its offshore patrol vessels in pursuit of its charter as the law enforcing agency in the maritime zones of India. Integral ship-borne helicopters provide an efficient means for search and rescue, medical evacuation, surveillance, and pollution response. These two young women pilots have stormed the last bastion of men dominated helicopter flying at sea that requires pilots to land and take of from a helipad that is not only mobile and changing its position continuously, but is also continuously requiring the highest levels of skill to take off and land.”