American Airlines Is All About Gender Equality
December 18, 2007 – 2:54 pmOn the last leg of my flight home from Jackson Hole, I discovered that Sunday was Role Reversal Day at American Airlines.
The lead flight attendant was a tall, masculine-sounding, monotone-voiced male. He was also kind of a prick about shutting down electronic devices, but judging from what happened to my flight, I don’t exactly blame him. He was also Ivy-League educated (I was wearing a Brown University cap and he told me he went there. It’s good to see that an Ivy League education can get you a job being the bitch of 150 cranky airline passengers).
Our Captain came on the intercom from the flight deck a few minutes before our flight backed away to announce our delay. She said we’d be delayed up to 40 more minutes. SHE said that. Yes, we had a female Captain. I had never had a female pilot before. As she gave the details of the flight, her voice sounded more like that of a flight attendant. She was pleasant and perky, unlike our male flight attendant.
(As a side note, women pilots are pretty rare. They make up just 5% of all pilots worldwide, and most of them are First Officers, not Captains. So honestly, a female Captain is about as rare as a female Coal Miner.)
Anyway, our flight went off without a hitch - until we tried to land. It was windy on Sunday night here in New York, so our landing was a bit hellish. Did I say a bit? I meant, extremely hellish. Like, clenching my hands together in prayer hellish. Like, people throwing up in the back of the plane hellish. Like, OH MY GOD, WE’RE GOING TO DIE hellish. I don’t know if everyone else on the plane noticed, but being an avid flyer, I watched the pilot abort landing three times. It’s hard not to notice when your plane makes a harrowing, gut-wrenching turn about 1,000 feet off the ground and you see the airport runway out of the side window of the plane. We barely made our landing the fourth time on a crosswind runway, when the entire plane breathed a sigh of relief.
This goes to prove that just like driving, women can’t fly planes.
Just kidding.
Kind of.
10 Responses
Your blog is impressive. I was told to check it out over the weekend. I hope your skiing trip went well in the Wild West. I’m really sorry I missed meeting you this past weekend but now I can read about your adventures on your blog. Merry Christmas!
By Mel on Dec 18, 2007
American Airlines sucks anyway (from my own experience).
By Ed on Dec 18, 2007
Her name wasn’t Kathy Heller, was it? the pilot I mean. My babysitter became a pilot. Although. let’s face it, since she must be 40 if shes a day now, her last name probably isn’t Heller anymore. I mean she’s probably married. and let’s be honest, if your last name was Heller, you’d definitely change it when you got married.
By Meaghan on Dec 18, 2007
Female pilots rock. Just an FYI. And I know because I am on my way to becoming one…
By LizM on Dec 19, 2007
I have to say Im surprised no one has given you crap for saying women are bad drivers/pilots. When I read this post yesterday I thought there would be someone all upset about that…but I guess not…
hmmm.
By Annie in MN on Dec 19, 2007
on a similar landing once on a southwest (ugh) flight, the old lady getting off in front of me stopped at the captain and asked, “did we get shot down?”
By keith on Dec 19, 2007
Annie in MN: I’m surprised, too. Maybe my readers are finally coming around on this whole concept of sarcasm!
By Chris on Dec 19, 2007
Sarcasm is just delightful when correctly used. So perhaps this bit of sarcasm will be appreciated as well. Did your Ivy League education teach you deduction? Namely, why would women be mostly confined to the First Officer position in an aircraft? Or did your vast education teach you that it strictly the job of the Captain to land the aircraft? Surely it must have taught you that the well-trained “bitch” will be saving the lives of the 150 others if anything should happen? Find out these answers and more with simple internet search that doesn’t require Ivy League snottery!
By Tyson on Dec 20, 2007
hey tyson, lighten up. do they not teach humor at douchebag tech, or whatever trade school you went to?
By keith on Dec 20, 2007
My sister is a female captain — yet she still gets asked if she’s a flight attendant every time she’s in uniform. Funny world we live in.
By B on Dec 21, 2007