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India's 74-year-old president has been passed fit to fly in a supersonic Sukhoi-30 fighter jet later this month after undergoing a series of medical tests, the country's airforce chief said Friday.
"We have completely evaluated her health," chief air marshal P.V. Naik said of Pratibha Patil, the first female president who is usually seen on official business draped in her trademark loose cotton sari.
"She has been preparing for this for the last two months and she is medically fit," Naik told reporters.
The 1934-born president, the supreme commander of India's armed forces -- the world's fourth largest -- is slated to take a spin in the twin-seater cockpit of the Russian-built jet on November 25.
"Even on the day she goes on the sortie, she will be tested, just before she gets into the aircraft," the air force chief said.
Only if the president is medically fit on that particular day will she take the flight, he added.
Her predecessor, then 74-year-old Abdul Kalam, known as the architect of India's nuclear-capable missiles, flew in the supersonic jet in 2006.
