The United flight from Newark, N.J. to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Sarasota, Fla., featured an entire flight crew of women, led by Captain Gabrielle Harding and co-pilot First Officer Julia Ewalefo.
The flight, though not the first all-woman flight crew, represents a rare occurrence in aviation. Having a woman pilot is uncommon, but an entire team made up of women is even more so.
Women Pilots Are Rare
According to the CAPA Centre for Aviation, the number of women in aviation has grown over the last two decades, but there’s still much room for growth.
In 2022, just 4-6% of airline pilots across the world identify as women. The same year, around 5% of pilots in the United States identified as women.
The flight’s leader, Captain Gabrielle Harding, is one of just two Black women to become line check pilots at the airline. She is also the country’s only Black woman commercial pilot who graduated from a pilot program at a historically Black college.
In an August 2023 interview with United Aviate, a pilot career development program, Harding said she became interested in becoming a pilot when she was 15 years old. She graduated from a pilot program at Hampton University and was the only woman in the program during the entire four years she was there, she said.
Loving ‘Every Aspect’
According to New York’s ABC 7, the co-pilot, First Officer Julia Ewalefo, began her aviation career as a flight attendant.
Each of the crew’s four flight attendants is a woman as well.
Harding told ABC 7 that she loves flying. She noted the stability it brings and said she loves “every aspect” of her job, including the ability to travel to various destinations.
When the crew arrived back in Newark, they exited the place to a crowd of people taking photos and cheering.
“It was wonderful having an all-women crew, and Julia did a great job,” Harding told ABC 7 in a post-flight interview. “It’s important to highlight these occasions to help inspire the next generation of women aviators. I hope any young girl seeing this story believes they can achieve their dreams if they put their mind to it.”