Posted on 03/06/2014 2:00:13 PM PST by nickcarraway
A routine flight from Calgary to Victoria was marred by a passenger who apparently didn’t appreciate having his flight captained by a woman. CTV Toronto: Pilot shocked by nasty note
Instead of thanking the female pilot, a passenger left an angry note behind on a napkin. Colin D'Mello has the story. Canada AM: Passenger leaves sexist note for pilot
A WestJet passenger has caused an uproar after he left a note for a female pilot that said the cockpit was no place for a woman.
A female WestJet pilot says she was in “shock” after a passenger left behind a note following a weekend flight to say that the cockpit is “no place for a woman.”
Crew cleaning the aircraft found a note, written on a napkin and signed by "David," after passengers deplaned from the Calgary to Victoria flight on Sunday.
In addition to suggesting that women don’t belong at the controls of an airplane, the note also said that “A woman being a mother is the most honour, not as ‘captain.’”
“PS I wish Westjet (sic) could tell me a fair lady is at the helm so I can book another flight,” David went on. On the back of the napkin, David wrote that he was “not impressed,” and signed it “Respectfully in love, David.”
Carey Steacy, who has been a pilot for 17 years and has been flying with WestJet for more than nine, says her first reaction to the note was “shock.”
“It made me feel sad. It was just surprising,” Steacy told CTV Vancouver. “I can’t believe that there’s people that still think that way.”
The female flight attendants and her male co-pilot all had the same reaction. “All of us had our mouths open in shock,” she said. “We didn’t know what to say.” Steacy took to Facebook not only to rebut David’s antiquated view of women, but also his airline terminology: the cockpit is now referred to as the flight deck.
"You were more than welcome to deplane when you heard I was a 'fair lady,' Steacy wrote on Facebook. "You have that right. Funny, we all, us humans, have the same rights in this great free country of ours. Now, back to my most important role, being a mother.” Steacy told CTV that she felt she had to "respond to his opinion. He absolutely has his right to his opinion and I have a right to disagree with it.”
Steacy said she has received widespread support since posting the note and her rebuttal to Facebook.
“I have to think that’s very much an uncommon opinion among the general public,” she said.
Steacy said she has never seen anything like the note left for her, she has heard “the odd comment in jest, usually in jest. “That’s the only time I’ve ever seen something as raw as that.” But she acknowledges that it is still a shock for some people to see a female pilot, because far fewer women than men choose to pursue a flying career.
“Almost every day people I find are a little bit surprised, and I think it’s just because women aren’t enrolling in flight schools -- not because they’re not being hired, but because they’re not enrolling in it,” Steacy said.
“Either it’s because they don’t think they can or they have been told that it’s not for women or that they can’t do it. And I just hope that that mindset can change, like it has in a lot of professions.”
As for David’s comment about motherhood being the highest honour, Steacy said she agrees.
“I have two beautiful children, it is the highest honour.”
There is a dot over the “e” jet. It looks like an umlaut but there are two dots in an umlaut.
On Alitalia, if you land safely in Milan or Rome, you are happy. It means you didn’t crash.
I'll be dating myself with this but I flew Alitalia back when the stewardesses [sic] used to give the passengers drinks, fruit and cigarettes as treats. It made the relatively short flight from Brussels to Rome quite enjoyable. The whole cabin was blazing away in that quite un-PC era.
Fake, I’m sure it’s fake, they’ve all been fake.
Who cares really
...the cockpit is not place for a hypersensitive whiner reqardless of gender.
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Exactly. I was thinking as I was reading about her shock and her need to take it to Facebook that perhaps the man was right.
I don’t think a male pilot would have gone on about such a note.
I vote HOAX.
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OMW! I’ll bet you are right. I was thinking that someone in the cabin crew did it because she is an annoying whiner, but I’ll bet you are right.
“There is a dot over the “e” jet. It looks like an umlaut but there are two dots in an umlaut.”
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The “dot” was obviously misplaced slightly from where it belonged—over the lower-case “j”.
Anyhow, it’s still a standard liberal/feminist/homosexual HOAX trying to make her a “victim”.
I was onboard with the muzzie angle... but your basic hoax works too.
Hoax. The cleaning crew race through the plane to turn it around asap. I doubt they read anything. They only have time to clean the cabin and steal anything of value left by passengers. They don’t have time to read.
She needs attention. She’s likely seeing a psych.
She’ll soon regret flying with that window open. Noob.
He might have used a fake name. It might even be a she. It might even be totally fake. That story will be on page 305B.
Some spell checkers used to even allow you to set the option to Canadian English. Some still may do so.
Why so easily shocked?
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