Only 5% of airline pilots in the US are female. Surprisingly, just over 1% of airline captains are females. This is a pretty great story.
Southwest Airlines had a mother and daughter duo pilot a flight for the first time in the carrier's 50 years of existence. Holly Petitt was the captain and first officer was the first officer.
This flight is described by Holly.
“It’s been a dream come true. First, I found this career and fell in love with it, and then that one of my kids fell into this and in love with this career too. It’s surreal.”
This story is special because it is between fathers and sons. Some pictures from their flight can be found below.
It's just as cool as the flight. After graduating college, Holly became a flight attendant. She decided that she wanted to fly after riding in the jumpseat.
She went from being a flight attendant to being a full time mom. She began to pursue her dream of becoming a pilot with the help of her family.
Holly was at aWAI conference and was interested in Southwest Airlines. She passed the interview despite applying for a scholarship. She is still at the airline.
Southwest Airlines was where Holly's daughter grew up. After receiving a discovery flight at the age of 14, Keely realized she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a pilot.
After earning her pilot's license, she got an internship at Southwest. She was an airline pilot for nearly three years before landing her dream job with Southwest Airlines in August. It's great to have a job at one of the major carriers in your 20s.
It was the first time in Southwest Airlines history that a mother and daughter piloted a flight. This flight is worth a story because of the percentage of female pilots.
Holly and Keely will be flying many more times together.
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