New Delhi: The ‘Youngest Commercial Pilot of India’ Sakshi Kochhar, was born on May 30, 2005, in a small town Parwanoo, the Gateway of Himachal Pradesh. Born and brought up in a small business family having their own trading business in footwear and apparel, Sakshi completed her primary education in Parwanoo. She completed her 10th class in Himachal Pradesh and had nurtured an interest in flying airplanes since then.
As she yearned to become Pilot, she opted for Science with Physics and Maths subjects in her 12th standard. ‘I am so lucky to have been brought up in a loving family consisting of my grandparents, parents and an elder brother who always fostered me to achieve my dreams’, Sakshi told ANI. She also termed that getting CPL is a costlier task on foreign soil but her family supported her fully and now she is a CPL holder and looking to fly. ‘Aviation is a very costlier business and I spent around 70 lacs to get CPL. Once I get the job I will return the money to my parents’, she told ANI.
Sakshi wants to make her parents proud. Right from the tender age of 10, Sakshi was fascinated by the aviation industry that developed a passion in her to become pilot and aspired to do something big in life. The talented girl momentarily left her passion for learning dance in which she was declared the first runner-up in the Dance Competition at the State level. She opted to study for her Senior Secondary Education (12th Standard) at Government Model Senior Secondary School in Chandigarh. Thereafter, she pursued to achieve her goal for which she joined the Skyline Aviation Club in Mumbai for her Commercial Pilot License (CPL) training.
After completing initial theory training of four months, the aviation club deputed her for advanced flight training with their designated training centre in the USA. The girl who never lived alone in her life was full of determination and went ahead to travel 8,500 miles far to the USA for training to become a pilot. Sakshi Kochhar achieved her target within seven and half months which coincided with her 18th birthday when she received her Commercial Pilot License and became the youngest Commercial Pilot of India. Interestingly even the previous record of the youngest commercial pilot was held by a girl the 19-year-old Maitri Patel, a farmer’s daughter from Surat, who was also trained under Sakshi’s mentor captain Dr AD Manek, the pilot Instructor.
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