While most of us are still figuring out our lives at the age of nineteen, Maitri Patel is making headlines as she became one of the youngest commercial pilots in the country.
The daughter of a farmer, she underwent a pilot training programme in the US and completed her 18-month course in just 11 months.
In an interview with India Today, she said that she was 8 years old when she saw an airplane for the first time and that’s when she decided to become a pilot.
When she returned to her hometown, her proud family gave her a grand welcome at the airport.
Her father, Kantilal Patel, wanted to see his daughter fly a plane and travel the world one day. He used to ferry passengers for a living, during which time he used to watch the airplanes take off and land. Therefore, he enrolled her in a private school. He even sold a piece off his ancestral land in order to enrol his daughter in a flight training course.
While her father is a farmer in the Olpad area, her mother works at Surat Municipal Corporation’s health department.
Maitri now wants to fly a Boeing aircraft and she will begin her training for the same soon.
Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Ramniklal Rupani met Maitri Patel and congratulated her on becoming the youngest female commercial pilot.