This odious note which claims “the cockpit of [sic] airliner is no place for a woman,” was allegedly penned by a male passenger for the attention of the female pilot of his plane.
WestJet pilot Carey Smith Steacy had flown from Calgary to Victoria on Sunday when the message – scrawled messily on the back of a napkin – was found by cleaning staff and handed to her, CBC News British Colombia reports.
"To Capt/WestJet: The cockpit of an airliner is no place for a woman.
A woman being a mother is the most honor, not as 'captain'. We're short mothers, not pilots WestJet. Proverbs 31
(Sorry, not PC)
PS I wish WestJet could tell me a fair lady is at the helm so I could book another flight! In the end this is all mere vanity.
Not impressed.
Respectfully in love,
David."
According to Steacy, the passenger also asked flight attendants whether she had enough hours to captain the plane.
The news channel adds Steacy posted images of the note to her Facebook account, with the following response: "To David. Thank you for the note, you discreetly left me on your seat.
"I respectfully disagree with your opinion that the 'cockpit,' (we now call it the flight deck as no cocks are required), is no place for a lady. In fact, there are no places that are not for ladies anymore."
Now, there have been incidents of this kind which have turned out to be hoaxes (yes Elan Gale, I’m talking about you).
As Jezebel points out, they are usually “Perpetrated either by people desperate for some kind of attention or people just looking to have some fun with the media at the expense of the emotions of sensitive people who really do care about things like this.”
Regardless of this, WestJet has responded admirably to the matter, with a spokesman telling HuffPost UK:“We are enormously proud of the professionalism, skills and expertise of our pilots and we were disappointed to see this note.”
Of the note, Steacy, a mother-of-two told CTV News: “He absolutely has his right to his opinion and I have a right to disagree with it.
“I have to think that’s very much an uncommon opinion among the general public.”