Flight Lieutenant Har Raj Kaur Boparai, Indian Air Force (IAF)’s first and only woman pilot of the heavy-lift transport aircraft C-17 Globemaster, has participated in ‘Operation Kaveri’, a challenging mission to safely return Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Sudan, official sources said on Thursday.
The C-17 Globemaster is the IAF’s largest aircraft. “Flt Lt Har Raj Kaur Boparai is a C-17 pilot. She took part in Operation Kaveri. The giant aircraft was flown from Hindon Air Base in Ghaziabad to Jeddah and from Jeddah it flew to Mumbai carrying the evacuees,” an official source said.
On Thursday, the plane touched down in Mumbai. The source added: “Flt Lt H R K Boparai is the first and only woman officer of the IAF who’s flown the C-17. She is the only woman officer in the aircraft’s squadron.”
Following their arrival in Mumbai, the evacuees’ pictures were shared by the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. “Another #OperationKaveri flight comes to Mumbai. 246 more Indians come back to the motherland,” he tweeted.
Hindon Air Force Station serves as the squadron’s base of operations. Up to this point, 606 Indians have been returned from Sudan.
Before the shaky ceasefire between the regular army and a paramilitary force ends, India is attempting to rescue more of its citizens from the war-torn African country.
(Pictures Credit: Manish Prasad)
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