Prem Mathur

#58/100 in #100extraordinarywomen

Long ago there were not that many pilots in India, the reason being women were not encouraged to get in to that field, which was considered as male's domain. But, nowadays numerous Indian women work as pilots both in the private and public airline companies. Initially women were working in the cabin, taking care of the passenger's needs. Today they made a big jump from the cabin to the cockpit. It all started with one Prem Mathur whose continued efforts and passion made her become the first Indian woman commercial pilot in 1951, exactly 4 years after India's freedom from the British. Indeed a great feat in those years of conservatism and restricted movements for Indian women. Above in the Indian sky, woman in the cockpit was unthinkable in the 1940s and 1950s. Certainly in the area of commercial flying Prem Mathur was a trailblazer.

After receiving the pilot's flying license in 1947 from Allahabad Flying Club, her ambition was to join a commercial airliner as a pilot. Incidentally, she was first Indian woman to have received a commercial pilot's license in India. In the initial stages, the results were not encouraging, she kept receiving a barrage of regret letters from the commercial airline companies. The commercial airliners, it is said, did not want to take risk by employing women pilots. Their excuse was the passengers won't be comfortable sitting in the airliner with women in the cockpit. This kind of misconception was very much there and it was rooted in the fact that women won't as quickly respond to emergency situation as men would do. Simply speaking, women pilots were not good enough to handle a real emergency situation that might develop while flying as it was different from handling emergency situation in a simulated environment on the ground.

As for Prem, that was not the end of the world. Now she became even more serious about joining a commercial airliner at any cost and her positive approach coupled with sincere efforts, at last, paid off. Deccan Airways of Hyderabad at the interview asked her all kinds of questions about sophisticated electronic and mechanical control and being knowledgeable as she was, initially she was hired as a co-pilot in 1951; after having won the air race in 1949 conducted by the Aero Club. 

However, the company was reluctant to giver her full command of the cockpit even after fulfillment of the required hours of flying by her. While with Deccan, she had the opportunity to fly distinguished personalities like Lal Bahadur Shastry, Indira Gandhi, Lady Mountbatten etc. A disappointed Prem left the job and later became a pilot of well-known industrialist G. D. Birla's private aircraft and was stationed in Delhi. After a short stint with Mr. Birla, she joined the joined Indian Airlines as a pilot in 1953, the National Domestic Airline came into operation with the amalgamation of many private airlines. On 2nd October 1953, Capt. Prem Mathur started flying as Co-pilot with Indian Airlines and India became the first country in the world to employ a woman as a pilot in their IATA Airline Ltd. Till retirement she had a distinguished carrier with the Indian Airlines.

As a courageous woman, she chased her dream and accomplished her passion.

Source: Google search.