‘Flying high’: How Haryana became home to Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, IAF’s trailblazing woman chopper pilot

Commissioned into the Indian Air Force in 2004, Singh is the IAF’s first woman helicopter pilot to be awarded the elite ‘Master Greencard’ rating — the highest honour a military pilot can earn. Reserved for those who fly in the most unforgiving weather and terrain, it is a distinction few ever achieve. Singh, with her clockwork precision and fearlessness, did.

Much of her operational flying has taken her across the toughest theatres in the country — the high reaches of Kashmir, the northeast’s tricky valleys, and remote zones with no margin for error. Whether it was a high-risk casualty evacuation or a last-minute search mission, Singh has been a name many have come to rely on.

But even off the tarmac, Singh’s pursuit of excellence is relentless. A certified parajumper, mountaineer, sea sailor and scuba diver, she scaled the 21,631-ft-high Mt Manirang in Himachal Pradesh after a gruelling 20-day expedition in 2022.

Now married into a Haryana family deeply embedded in the military and academia, Singh’s personal life mirrors her professional discipline. Her husband, Group Captain Dinesh Sabharwal — a fellow chopper pilot and environmental engineering graduate from Delhi College of Engineering — is a Vayu Sena Medal awardee and a veteran of UN peacekeeping operations in the Congo.

Singh had her eyes on the ‘Best Trainee Cadet’ award at the Air Force Academy after learning her husband had won it years earlier. She clinched it — along with the ‘Best Outdoor Training Cadet’ title, sweeping eight golds in athletics.

For Singh, this was not just about keeping pace with her partner — it was about setting a higher bar for herself.

While Singh’s roots trace back to Delhi — she studied at St Anthony’s School in Hauz Khas and was an NCC cadet — her marital home in Haryana has only deepened her ties to service and scholarship. Her father-in-law, P C Sabharwal, retired as deputy excise and taxation commissioner from the Haryana government, and her mother-in-law was a headmistress in the state’s education department. Her brother-in-law, Dr Vikas Sabharwal, is associate professor and former HoD, political science, Kurukshetra University, while her sister-in-law, Dr. Kanwaljeet Virdi, heads the geography department at a women’s college in Karnal.

Singh’s parents also shaped her disciplined streak. Her father, R S Nim, retired as a Delhi government school principal, and her mother, Karuna Singh, served at National Council of Educational Research and Training.

With over two decades of military service and countless missions behind her, Singh represents a rare breed of officer — a pilot, athlete, adventurer, and now, a public face of the IAF. But ask those in Haryana who have watched her rise, and they will tell you: she is still the same — fiercely grounded, and always aiming higher.