- Sunday, March 02, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian president Droupadi Murmu on Saturday (8) flew a sortie on a Sukhoi 30MKI fighter jet at the Tezpur Air Force Station in the northeastern state of Assam. Videos showed her taking her maiden sortie on a fighter plane and becoming the second woman president of India to fly a warplane.
In 2009, then president Pratibha Patil made history by taking off in a Sukhoi 30MKI from an air-force base in the western Indian city of Pune.
#WATCH | Assam: President Droupadi Murmu takes sortie on the Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft pic.twitter.com/jtRVsFR2X2
— ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2023
The president, who is the supreme commander of the Indian armed forces, flew for nearly 30 minutes covering Brahmaputra and Tezpur valleys with a view of the Himalayan mountain range before returning to the case, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, which is her official residence in New Delhi, tweeted.
The 64-year-old Murmu, who became president in July last year succeeding Ram Nath Kovind, is currently on a three-day visit to Assam which started on Thursday (6). She was accorded a Guard of Honour upon arrival at the air force station in Tezpur.
#WATCH | President Droupadi Murmu accorded Guard of Honour on her arrival at Tezpur Air Force Station, Assam
President Murmu will make a sortie on the Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft today. pic.twitter.com/FkbypK23QO
— ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2023
The president later penned her experience in the visitors’ book where she lauded India’s defence capabilities.
“It is a matter of pride that India’s defence capabilities have expanded immensely to cover all the frontiers of land, air and sea.”
At a height of about two kilometres above sea level and 800 kilometre-per-hour speed, the ‘fighter jet was flown by Group Capt Naveen Kumar, CO of 106 Squadron’, the president’s official Twitter handle wrote.
President Droupadi Murmu took a historic sortie in a Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft at the Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam. President Murmu is the third President and second woman President to undertake such a sortie. pic.twitter.com/DozRAWm3Yp
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) April 8, 2023
Among other Indian presidents, Murmu’s immediate successor Kovind and the late APJ Abdul Kalam also made sorties in Sukhoi 30 fighter planes at the air force station in Pune during their respective tenures.
