UK Majority Don't Trust Women Airline Pilots

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''Around 51 per cent of those questioned by Sunshine.co.uk, the online travel agent, said they were less likely to trust a female pilot, while just 14 per cent said they would feel safer with a woman at the control of an aircraft. A quarter said the sex of their pilot did not matter.

Nine per cent said they were "unsure".nd 51 per cent of those questioned by Sunshine.co.uk, the online travel agent, said they were less likely to trust a female pilot, while just 14 per cent said they would feel safer with a woman at the control of an aircraft. A quarter said the sex of their pilot did not matter. Nine per cent said they were "unsure".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10425135/Majority-dont-trust-female-pilots.html

There are only 5% of female commercial airline pilots in Europe and 1% in the the rest of the world.

I have only ever been flown by a woman pilot on an Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Marseille. Do you really need muscles to pilot a plane ?
Being qualified and knowing how to react in an emergency situation is far more important than one's gender.
 
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I don't see any reason to prefer a particular gender of pilot. Perhaps someone will correct me with statistics or some bit of aviation knowledge, but for the moment, I'm assuming that both genders are equally capable of flying a commercial aircraft. Especially the large ones, which I assume are all power assisted controls. Right?

PS: I think you mean "female", and not "femail". ;)
 
I am chuckling to myself and fighting the urge to burst out with jokes about parking and mirrors but as my humour has got me labelled as the "anti-feminist'in the past I will refrain!:(
 
Ann Chovie said:
I am chuckling to myself and fighting the urge to burst out with jokes about parking and mirrors but as my humour has got me labelled as the "anti-feminist'in the past I will refrain!:(
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And yet, strangely, women are safer drivers. Odd, that.
 
beancounter said:
There is a partial explanation for women being safer drivers....a certain percent are mothers transporting children. That's why insurance rates for minivans are lower than for other cars. ( regardless of whose driving it)
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Women generally tend to take fewer risks while driving, as well as having a greater tendency to refrain from driving while under the influence.

Accidents due to distractions posed by electronic devices is tending to even out the accident rates between the sexes among young drivers, though.

Really, there is absolutely no reason why the sexes shouldn't be equally adept at flying airplanes, of whatever size. It's amazing, the extent to which old preconceptions about the sexes still survive, despite evidence to the contrary.
 
Many, if not most, pilots for the big airlines here in the US were trained to fly in the military. They have only allowed female miltary pilots for a few years now, so probably the ratio of male/female airline pilots will shift in the coming years. And as people become more accustomed to seeing women in the cockpit, attitudes will probably change as well.
 
Mischief said:
I don't think it's been "only a few years", unless you're talking direct combat missions. Women have been allowed in the Army's aviation school since the mid 1970's, for example.

ETA: Women have been officially allowed to fly in combat since 1993. A brief overview: http://mannaismayaadventure.com/2011/03/29/military-women-pilots/
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Well I guess at my age, 1993 seems like yesterday. :p Are there many female pilots in the US military even today? I thought it was still quite rare, sorry for the mistake.

ETA Apparently, worldwide, 6 percent of pilots (not just military, but all) are female. I think people will get more accustomed to it as the years go by. http://www.wai.org/resources/facts.cfm
 
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I don't know about the UK, but here in the US women have been piloting airplanes for over a century, and not just for the military. There are organizations for women pilots. They are just as capable of flying planes of all types and sizes as any man. I see no reason to distrust a pilot based on either gender.

http://www.ninety-nines.org/index.cfm/women_in_aviation_article.htm
 
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