Meet Captain Zoya Agarwal, first Indian to get a place at SFO Aviation Museum

Zoya Agarwal is the first woman commander to fly a Boeing 777 aircraft over the Hindu Kush mountain range and also fly the plane on the world’s longest air route.

Zoya Agarwal has been associated with Air India since May 2004. In 2013, she became the first youngest female commander to fly Air India’s Boeing 777 aircraft.

She did her B.Sc from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. After that, she followed her dream of becoming a pilot.

In 2021 for the first time, an all-women pilot team of Air India led by Zoya Agarwal covered the world’s longest air route from San Franciso (SFO) in the United States of America to Bengaluru city in India, covering the North Pole.

The US-based aviation museum was impressed by the achievement of all Air India’s women pilots and thus they offered a place in their museum.

The museum first opened its doors in 1980 at San Francisco International Airport. Its goal is to humanize the airport atmosphere. The objective of the SFO Museum is to entertain, engage, and inspire a worldwide audience through diverse programming; to collect, preserve, interpret, and communicate the history of commercial aviation; and to enhance the public experience at San Francisco International Airport. So far, they have gathered 150,000 objects relating to the history of SFO and the aviation industry. So far, only artifacts have been collected here, but this will be the first time that a human will be featured in this museum.

“I can’t believe that I am the first Indian female to be in a museum in the USA, if you ask the eight-year-old girl that use to sit on her terrace, looking at stars and dream about being a pilot. It’s an honour that the US recognised an Indian woman for their museum… it’s a great moment for me and my country,” captain Zoya said.

I feel that every life has value -- the person is someone's mother, daughter or wife.The value of life for me is above all, including all the money in this world.

I was over Pakistan when the doctors told me the passenger had two hours to live. I had a decision to make -- whether to land in Lahore, which was very close, but one couldn't ignore the tension that exists between the two countries, or return to Delhi.

There was no Plan B and I had to take the correct decision. I made a decision to return to Delhi, despite the bad weather.

"Please do not give up on your dreams, even if society is against it. This is a challenge which a lot of women face in India, where your own family will tell you that this profession is way out of your league," Captain Zoya said.

"Not just becoming a pilot, for any profession my advice to women out there is to dream and carry on with your dreams without giving up", she added.