An all-women cockpit crew made history after flying Air India’s inaugural San Francisco, CA to Bengaluru, India. Flight AI 176 departed from San Francisco (SFO) at around 8.30 pm (local time) on Saturday January 9 and landed at the Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport (BLR) at around 3.45 am (local time) on Monday January 11, 2021.
The 777-200ER covered approximately 16,000 kilometers (9941 statute miles) and took just under 17 hours to complete. The flight saved nearly 10 tons of fuel by following a route over the North Pole. The flight was commanded by Captain Zoya Sapra Agarwal.
This flight connects the Silicon Valley area and the tech center of Bengaluru. American Airlines plans to offer direct service connecting Bengaluru and the tech in Seattle later this year using 787-9 aircraft.
Here is a short YouTube video about the flight.
India has more female pilots than any other country in the world, with 13% of the country’s pilots being women.
Salsaworldtraveler'sblog 
such a cool route! flying in and out of australia I’ve rarely taken a route over the north pole. This is epic!
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Do you ever fly over or near Antarctica?
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no we dont fly over the antarctic. i guess if we had direct flights to Tierra Del Fuego, but we dont! most flights from australia are to asia, europe or west coast USA or Santiago. so there is no need to fly over the south pole. which would be amazing. we can get flights over it though i think as in tourist flights
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Makes sense. A bucket list item I hope to check off soon is visiting Antarctica.
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The only factor that would make this story even better is more lady pilots. In the U.S., most of our pilots come from the military, and American toxic masculinity is strong, severely limiting the number of female pilots. But there is nothing inherently masculine about flying a plane.
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Sex, race, national origin matter not as far as flying skill.
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Que gran orgullo!!! felicidades a tan grandiosas mujeres!!
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They deserve to be recognized. I think the flight was pretty easy for them. 😊
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congrats to Air India and these women. I’m not sure I’d want to take a 17-hour flight…
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It would be hard to endure in coach. Flying from Johannesburg, SA to Atlanta I was in coach for almost 19 hours because of headwinds and an incident on takeoff that required returning to the gate. It wasn’t too bad because the flight wasn’t full and there were empty seats.
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And hopefully the bathrooms remained functional!
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They did indeed😊
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What a journey to fly! That time difference really throws you out of whack when you land though. Where’d Sunday go!?
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Ha ha! Yes your body clock is all screwed up after a flight like that. Flying east from Asia it is neat that you sometimes arrive before you left!
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Very impressive, and crazy that the highest proportion of female pilots in any country is only 13%
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Very inspiring!
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Very true.
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Wow! Almost 17 hours .that’s fantastic 👏
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