AI's all-women crew operates 'around the world' flight

National passenger carrier Air India on Friday said that its all-women crew has operated an 'around the world' flight on the New Delhi-San Francisco-New Delhi route.

According to the airline, flight AI 173 which took off from IGI Airport here on February 27 to San Francisco, covered a distance of around 15,300 km in 15 and a half hours over the Pacific route and on the return journey from San Francisco over the Atlantic.

The return leg of flight AI 174 touched down at IGI airport here on Friday evening.

"The entire flight was operated by the women staff of eight departments. These departments included cockpit crew, cabin crew, check-in staff, doctor, customer care staff, ATC (air traffic control) and the entire ground handling from operator to technician, engineer and flight dispatcher and trimmer," the airline said in a statement.

"Line operation safety audit was done by Harpreet A De Singh, ED (executive director) Flight Safety, Air India. This is the first time that this audit was done by a female officer for around the world trip.

Currently, Air India operates to 41 international and 72 domestic destinations with a state-of-the-art fleet comprising of wide-body Boeing B777s, B747s, B787 Dreamliner and the narrow body Airbus A321s, A320s and A319 aircraft.

--IANS

rv/bg