Thursday was a historic day for United Airlines! In honor of Women's History Month (can you hear my eyes rolling from where you're reading this?), the airline manned a flight with an all-female crew!! Flight 1215 from Newark, N.J., to Sarasota, Fla., was piloted by not just one but two lady pilots, and not only that, they were both women of color!!! Ring the bells and sound the trumpets!
ABC's Fresno, Ca., affiliate reports:
It's being dubbed a Women's History Month Flight.
The all-women crew is staffing flight 1215 from EWR to SRQ, captained by one of two Black women Line Check Pilots at United, Gabrielle Harding, the second in the company's history.
Captain Harding is the only Black woman flying a commercial airline who has graduated from an HBCU pilot program. She is also part of the "Hampton 6" that consists of all Hampton graduates who are now captains at United, and the only woman among the group.
Flying alongside Harding is First Officer Julia Ewalefo, who will be flying her first flight with United Airlines after starting her career as a flight attendant.
She previously worked with Frontier Airlines before moving to the flight deck, where she has flown with Endeavor until coming to United.
All the flight attendants working this flight are also women.
If you have a strong stomach, you can watch ABC 30's fawning report:
That's swell! Unfortunately, Thursday was also historic for United in another way: part of the landing gear fell off another one of their planes shortly after takeoff. Flight 35 took off from San Francisco, headed for Japan, but before the crew could retract the landing gear, one of the tires straight-up fell off. Secretary Buttigieg, please pick up the red courtesy phone.
Let's go to the videotape, as they used to say.
A United Airlines Boeing 777 flight lost one of its tires during takeoff from San Francisco, crushing cars on the ground.
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) March 8, 2024
🎥 Cali Planes pic.twitter.com/ycMCNBsvtc
The plane was diverted to LAX, where it landed safely. Officials report the tire landed in a Los Angeles International Airport employee parking lot. Several cars got glommed, but, thankfully, there were no injuries — this time. But at this point in our diversity experiment, can that sad day be far?
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I don't mean to harsh on the United Airlines lady crew's triumphant day, but at this particular point in time, I'm certain I'm not the only person who cringes when I see a black woman in a powerful position. Did she truly earn that position because she is capable? Or are her skin color and plumbing part of the mix? When my own personal safety and well-being are at stake, that wonder becomes an excruciating concern.
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Warm, sloppy, woke congrats to the broads who made their way into the cockpit and all that, yada yada yada. It would be swell if United could also spare a moment to make sure its freaking planes don't fall apart in midair oh my God!
You see, I was raised by a legal immigrant who explained to me that America is great because here, you can do whatever you want, so it never crossed my mind that it was an issue to be female. In fact, I've always understood that women have more options than men: we can climb the ladder, or we can stay home with our babies, or we can manage a combination of the two things, or even do one and then the other.
Thanks to leftism and feminism, that's no longer the case. Getting to stay home with our babies is now the ultimate luxury, a choice very, very few of us can afford anymore. Thanks a lot, progs!
Editor's Note: an earlier version of this article stated that Flight 35 took off from Los Angeles and was diverted to San Francisco. We apologize for the mix-up.
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