With apologies, there really is far too much of significance for this to be sticking in my craw, and I never watch or care what Steve Doocy does or says except when it’s posted here for ridicule. However, today I watched a story about a passenger helping to land a 737 after the pilot was stricken. Sadly I was exposed to Mr. Doocy.
The passenger was a USAF B-1 bomber pilot who went to the cockpit to provide assistance apparently on request. The First Officer was a woman. Doocy found it necessary to inquire of the real pilot whether the FO had been adequate. In fairness (why the hell should he be entitled to fairness?!), he didn’t put it quite like that, but it came to me as “was this silly frilly…?” (“Was the co-pilot completely sure about what she was about to do there?”) Who knew that a female could fly a plane?! Who knew whether this wasn’t one of those jobs for which a woman simply could (pick a verb) her way to that seat?
The Captain assured us that at least this United Airlines FO was perfectly capable of dealing with the emergency and was sublimely professional. He emphasized that and stated that he merely handled the checklists and the radio. Oh happy day.
While I neither know nor care precisely how many women fly airliners every day or all manner of military craft for that matter, only a fool would not know that their numbers are legion. Moreover, only a fool would not know that the competition for those jobs always has been fierce, and thus those who succeed to them stand a pretty fair chance of actually being qualified for the position.
Despite being a male and not knowing any female pilots, I’ve long followed the fight women have waged to prove themselves capable of flying. They deserve better than this.
By the way, Major Kong wrote not long ago how one might qualify to fly for an airline.
3:01 PM PT: UPDATE Across the bottom of the screen were several things I hadn’t noticed previously including:
HERO IN THE SKY USAF pilot lands plane after pilot falls ill;
MID-AIR MENTOR Passenger guided first officer to safe landing;
But it was all good when Doocy said, “…Well you’ve given her credit…” and the HERO…USAF pilot…came back on the screen.