The first flight of the A350-900 earlier this week was a seminal moment for Air Mauritius as it seeks to revamp its fleet and compete with the best airlines in the world. Given that air travel is still considered as a luxury by the proletariat, the moment came and went by with only a select few showing interest in the A350’s first flight to Changi Airport in Singapore. Engineer Ishani Jagessur was one of those celebrating that moment.

Jagessur is currently working as a structural design engineer for Rolls Royce in the UK. Before making that switch to the famous brand – more than its culturally tacit affiliation with cars, Rolls Royce also deals with aircraft engines – she honed her skills for several years in Toulouse, which hosts the Airbus headquarters. After leaving Mauritius in 2008 following her Higher School Certificate (HSC), Jagessur headed to the Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III, eventually obtaining an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering in 2011 and a postgraduate specialisation in structures and stress calculation in 2013.

After an initial six-month internship at Aerolia in its research and development department, she was employed as an aerospace stress engineer at Altran. “I was immediately assigned as a contractor for Airbus and joined the Ailerons and Spoilers department for the A350,” she said. “At the time I joined the team, the A350-900 was about to get certified and we were performing the last loop of calculations, which we had to present in certification reports.”

As she is currently based in the UK, Jagessur was not able to look proudly at the A350, which she worked on, fly in the Mauritian sky. The young engineer wrote to Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth and Somas Appavou, CEO of Air Mauritius, with the hope of getting her parents and siblings invited to the inauguration. “This inauguration of Air Mauritius’ first A350 is the culmination of my family’s belief in me to contribute towards our nation’s progress in the civil aviation sector and I would be privileged if you can grant a permission to my family to take part in the inauguration of this engineering marvel,” she wrote.

Unfortunately, her family could not enjoy that proud moment either as the letter was left unanswered.