Tomorrow is International Women’s Day and Air France is doing it up with an all-female crew on a flight from Paris to Washington. So basically, they were able to get two female pilots on the same flight? It’s kinda sad that this is a thing, but cool that they’re recognizing the day, I guess?
Apparently they’ve been doing this since 2006, but this year the ladies are commandeering a A380 superjumbo, which can carry up to 516 passengers. Progress!
According to Women of Aviation Week:
Barely registering in bar graphs depicting the pilot population, the percentage of women pilots in 2010 is 5.39% of the pilot population holding an “other-than-student” pilot certificate and 5.15% of the for-hire pilot population.
“Seeing an all-female crew makes an impression. I’m very excited about the idea of this flight,” said Christine Heitz, who will pilot the flight.
You know what would be neat? If all the passengers were young women (or women of whatever ages!) interested in becoming pilots. Air France could make it a voyage of inspiration, and ladies could write essays about why they want to be a pilot*. Then, Air France would pick winners, and they’d get to take the flight, and ask the pilots questions, and also fly the plane for ten minutes each (and do fun tricks like “rolling it”, too)! It’d be like Rhianna’s press trip, but with less of the whole “being trapped in a nightmare” vibe.
[Canoe]
* “Because you’re FLYING through the SKY.” would be my entire essay. Am I in??