Ritu declined IAF job to fly with private firm

new delhi: ritu malik, co-pilot of the beech kingair plane that crashed near mainpuri on sunday, had got a call to join the indian air force two days ago. as one of the youngest women pilots, ritu was looking forward to her new job with the jindals and lots of flying. friends and teachers who waited for ritu's body at the palam technical area broke down as they spoke about her and recalled her skill as a pilot.air commodore p badhwar, director of the indira gandhi rashtriya udaan academy (igrua) at rai bareilly, remembered ritu as an excellent flier. he said: "she was just 21 years old and had finished flight training. she got her licence only last week under which she could fly multi-engine planes." the academy is an autonomous body under the ministry of civil aviation and trains pilots to fly multi-engine planes. badhwar said: "she had a commercial pilot's licence for a single-engine aircraft and had joined the academy for multi-engine endorsement. she was in the academy for two months." captain sunita sharma, with whom ritu had trained at the karnal airport, said: "she was my student and later became my friend. she had sharp reflexes and a passion for flying. her mother was the inspiration behind ritu's love for flying. when her mother passed away in november last year, it was a big setback for ritu, but she did not lose heart. ritu's death is a loss for aviation as we have very few women pilots." ritu's friend at the academy pratibha yadav said: "she had got her uniform stitched recently and was excited about her first flight. ritu was also looking forward to flying to pinjore later this week." pilot vivek gupta had also passed out of the same academy. he came in for a lot of praise from badhwar. "vivek was from the seventh batch of our academy, which would be at least seven years ago. vivek had a rich flying experience for the kingair," badhwar said. "the plane is used all over the world extensively for communication sorties and can seat nine people, including the pilots," he said.