Wg Cdr Vyomika Singh: Pilot who briefed media on ‘Operation Sindoor’ was always meant to own the sky

It was the early 1990s. Vyomika Singh was in Class 6 discussing the meaning of names when someone spoke out, “You are Vyomika, which means you own the sky." That was the day she decided she would become a pilot.

That dream came true. She is today a Wing Commander in the Indian Air Force and on Wednesday was chosen to brief the nation about India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’, sparking the question – Who is Vyomika Singh?

An accomplished helicopter pilot, Vyomika has flown a variety of aircraft and taken part in rescue operations in extreme conditions to evacuate civilians.

In retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, Indian armed forces early on Wednesday carried out missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s base Muridke.

The military strikes were carried out under ‘Operation Sindoor’, two weeks after the massacre of 26 people, mostly tourists, in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

At the briefing, Vyomika, alongside Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Col Sofiya Qureshi of the Indian Army, briefed the media on India’s strike. The women officers flanked Misri on the dais, who delivered the opening statement from the government.

The two officers then shared details about the sites hit by the Indian forces.

Vyomika, who’s married to an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot, had shared during a panel discussion hosted by a private channel in 2023, as to how her name perhaps carried her destiny to become a pilot.

“I was in Class 6 when the Eureka moment happened — I realised that I wanted to be a pilot and own the sky. We were having a discussion in class on the meaning of names. Somebody shouted, ‘You are Vyomika, which means you own the sky’. Since that day, I have wanted to be a pilot. This was in the early 1990s,” Vyomika recalled during the panel discussion.

During the interaction that hailed the spirit of ‘Nari Shakti’, she also shared her journey into the IAF and how she earned her wings.

From dreaming of being a pilot to logging over 2,500 flying hours, Vyomika has operated several helicopters across some of the country’s most challenging terrains, from the high-altitude sectors in Jammu and Kashmir to the remote areas in the Northeast.

In 2020, she led a rescue operation in Arunachal Pradesh, flying in extreme conditions to evacuate civilians.

“It has been an excellent experience (in the IAF), and I love it,” the IAF officer told the private channel, as she shared what it meant to fly a helicopter in different weather conditions and navigate it.

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