IndiGo Airlines Passenger Refuses To Fly With Female Pilot

A Mumbai-bound IndiGo airlines flight was delayed nearly 2 hours at the Delhi airport on Friday morning after a passenger caused a ruckus over the fact that the plane's pilot was a woman, according to Indian news site IBN Live.

A fellow passenger told the IANS (Indo-Asian News Service):

First the flight was held up by a slight fog. Then, just when we were about to fly, the doors were opened again at around 9 as a middle-aged man seated a couple of seats away from me objected to a woman piloting the plane.

The man reportedly became jittery after the pilot came the intercom to deliver a regular flight announcement and was female.

The man started grumbling, saying "I don't want to die! She can't take care of the house, how will she take care of a plane?"

Flight attendants were called and ground staff came on board to escort the man off the plane with his luggage. The whole ordeal lasted roughly 40 minutes.

An airline spokesman responded that there was a "mentally unsound" passenger on the plane.

Comments

[Janelle Kennedy]

01:53 PM on 03/16/2011

How much do you want to bet the passenger was Muslim???

[AZreb]

10:27 AM on 03/01/2011

This put a reat scenario in my mind -

"Fine, sir, here's your money back" Then when he bought a ticket on another airline, that airline made sure there was a female pilot for the plane. Next? "Fine, sir - here's your money back" - and then the same for each and every airline he wanted to use.

What to do? Sure would have served him right.

[pineappaloupe]

12:56 PM on 02/28/2011

Ahmelaya Eirhardt. Such an unfortunate name for an Indian female pilot.

[European1919]

01:33 AM on 02/28/2011

What a dipstick.

[garystartswithg]

09:57 PM on 02/27/2011

I would like to offer IndiGo airlines a bit of advice -- you can't fix stupid. Throw the dumb guy off the plane and go. We have a world to build and people that don't like progress can go play with their poo.

[pita143]

07:07 PM on 02/27/2011

Okay, you don't like a Woman pilot, than walk. As a former member of the Air Force I would rather ride with a Female Pilot ANYDAY of the week. I have found that Woman are true professionals while piloting a plane and they are just as, if not better than most Male Pilots.
And this is coming from a Middle Aged White Guy who has had the pleasure of traveling with several Female Pilots.

[Jolimont]

04:21 PM on 02/27/2011

So they have "conservatives" in India too?

[garystartswithg]

10:01 PM on 02/27/2011

India has some crazy crazy conservatives who think they are special because their dad named them funny. At the same time an Indian that worked for me gave me the most insight into our culture -- in India they put crazy people away and here we send them to college. Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, GW Bush, all those Dicks, all college graduates. Point well made.

[Allen Irizarry]

03:00 PM on 03/05/2011

Nowhere in this article did it say the man was Indian. It just said the plane was Delhi-bound.

[sloreader]

03:23 PM on 02/27/2011

Amelia Earhardt just rolled over in her grave.

[SaneThoughts]

07:40 AM on 02/27/2011

This guy probably always votes Republican too!

[blackmagicIII]

09:23 PM on 02/26/2011

The reason women are better pilots is because they are not. . .cocky.

[adcan49]

10:10 PM on 02/26/2011

Good one!

[Big0725]

07:01 PM on 02/27/2011

You get a fan for that one!

[brown fox]

09:05 PM on 02/26/2011

I think people should hold their comments till they get a true picture of the situation

Huffpost should also check once on the web before putting up an article that deems the passenger as an ignoramus misogynist bigot.

The point worth noting here, and the main reason why the passenger was enraged, is the woman captain of Indigo had obtained her license by fraudulent means, and had a near miss earlier because of touching down on the nosewheel while landing.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/IndiGo-pilot-who-landed-on-nose-wheel-failed-licence-test-7-times/articleshow/7583939.cms

Suddenly, this article is fun no more!

[adcan49]

10:10 PM on 02/26/2011

Thanks a lot, Killjoy!

[Big0725]

07:02 PM on 02/27/2011

And he knew these facts?

[alteregoess]

03:28 PM on 02/26/2011

I had a female pilot once on the old Allegheny airlines. She had the sense not to reveal her gender until we were at cruising altitude. Too late then! I must say, she made the smoothest landing of any flight I've ever been on!

[sloreader]

03:26 PM on 02/27/2011

I heard Amelia Earhardt was a fair pilot back in the day.

[Big0725]

07:03 PM on 02/27/2011

Ummm ............ jury is still kinda out on that. I think she was braver than she was good.

[KIampfbeobachter]

01:51 PM on 02/26/2011

In the sixties and seventies we had that idiocy in Germany. I have trained several women to be pilots and I found the to at least as good as their male co trainees and some of them are absolutely superior to the men.

[shatner99]

01:45 PM on 02/26/2011

Borat says, "whaaaat."

[americanfreedoMYTH]

01:26 PM on 02/26/2011

me too. count me out

[Widespread Panic]

07:27 PM on 02/26/2011

Just curious, but why? I have mixed feelings about it and I'm a woman.

[camanokat]

03:44 PM on 02/27/2011

I'm curious why you have mixed feelings. I've seen woman pilots in airports but never bothered to notice the gender of pilots on the plane I'm traveling on. I just want to get to my destination as quickly and comfortably as possible. I'm much more concerned about the fat guy spilling into my seat or the kid behind me kicking my seat.

[AZreb]

10:32 AM on 03/01/2011

Do you feel the same way about doctors and surgeons? Lawyers? Politicians? Law enforcement officers? Heavy equipment operators, truck drivers? Firefighters?

As a senior cranky old broad, I am happy to see women performing well in positions that used to be "men only" back in the olden days.