Air Force Officer, Daughter Create History By Flying Hawk Sortie Together, Internet Calls It 'An Inspiration'

The photo showed Air Commodore Sharma and his daughter posing in front of the fighter plane.

(Image: Twitter/@SujeetKOfficial)

In a rare feat, a father and his daughter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) moved the internet  after a photograph of the duo flying a Hawk sortie in Karnataka's Bidar went viral. According to reports, Air Commodore Sanjay Sharma and his daughter, Flying Officer Ananya Sharma took the flight on May 30. The IAF, in an official statement, said that father-daughter duo created history when they flew in the same formation of Hawk-132 aircraft.

"There has not been any previous instance in the IAF where a father and his daughter were part of the same fighter formation for a mission. It was the mission where Air Cmde Sanjay and Fg Offr Ananya were more than just father and daughter. They were comrades, who had full faith in each other as fellow wingmen would," the IAF said in the release.

Historic! The Father-daughter duo Flying Officer Ananya & Air Commodore Sanjay Sharma,created history on May 30 when they flew in same formation of Hawk-132 aircraft at IAF Station Bidar.

Congratulations Ananya & Best Wishes. You definitely made your father & the Nation proud. pic.twitter.com/iKdVlbR6mP

— Sujeet Kumar 🇮🇳 (@SujeetKOfficial) July 5, 2022

The photo showed Air Commodore Sharma and his daughter posing in front of the fighter plane. The duo has been widely praised on social media with several Twitter users calling them "an inspirational".

Meanwhile, Air Marshal (Retd) PK Roy hailed the achievement and tweeted, "Hope to see many more in future."

Sharma was appointed in the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force in 1989 and has decades-long experience of fighter operations, having commanded a Mig-21 Squadron as well as a frontline fighter station.

On the other hand, Ananya joined the Indian Air Force as a fighter pilot in December 2021. She joined the IAF five years after the it started accepting female pilots into its fighter squadron.