Meghana Shanbogh in front of Pilatus basic trainer, she is the first fighter pilot from South India
BANGALORE: Meghana Shanbogh MR, an engineering graduate, never wanted to pursue the middle-class dream of becoming a doctor or engineer. Adventurous and active since her younger days, she graduated as Flying Officer on Saturday, becoming the sixth woman fighter pilot of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
She is the first from Karnataka and South India. Meghana was born in Marle village in Chikkamagaluru, where she did her initial schooling before moving to a boarding school in Udupi and eventually completing engineering at Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE), Mysuru. Having flown both the Pilatus basic trainer and Kiran-MKI aircraft, Meghana, who graduated from the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, will now be posted in Bidar for an advanced training where she will be flying the Hawk.
“I’ve always had a passion for adventures; I’ve done extensive mountaineering, rock-climbing and rafting. But I could clearly make my decision only after I took up paragliding, where I met a lot of people from the force. Their lives were inspiring and I immediately knew what I would become,” Meghana told STOI.
Having made the decision to join IAF as a pilot, she only dreamt of being a fighter when she began her preparations. But as fate would have it, when she came close to making the decision of giving it a try at IAF, the air force was considering allowing women into the fighter stream. “Just before I got into IAF, the first three women were inducted into the fighter stream...Since the fighter stream was open, I knew I had to be part of it, and here I am,” she said.
Meghana has flown both the Pilatus, a recent import, and the Kiran, an old workhorse of IAF, which she found more challenging. She’ll fly a fighter jet after she has enough flying hours on the Hawk. She may get to fly the Mirage and MiG to begin with when she joins the air force, but Meghana said: “I dream of flying the Rafale one day.”