Sabrina Johnson is 22 years old and a pilot for a major airline in the US. But despite her young age she has been flying for nearly a decade and has a message for those who think she is too young or too inexperienced: get off my plane!
Don’t Feel Safe With 22-Year-Old SkyWest Female Pilot? “Hey, I Wouldn’t Trust You To Be On My Plane.”
Johnson began flying when she was 14 years old: her father set her up with a chance to experience flying and she fell in love with it. Nine years later, she’s now flying Embraer ERJ 175s for a regional feeder carrier. Her travels take her across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Johnson told Insider she is routinely mistaken for a flight attendant, even by airport staff, and many passengers have told her they would not trust her on the plane, to which she responds, “Hey, I wouldn’t trust you to be on my plane.”
I love this story because she loves her job. When someone loves their job it always shines through:
“I could make my job flying an airplane. I just think that that’s the coolest thing.”
And I like her TikTok page (though I think she exaggerates a tad about the benefits of being a pilot, especially concerning pass travel):
@sabrinaleej Was asked- Favorite part about my job? #travel DISCLAIMER: non rev is not always pretty, im only showing the best case senatios and no, I dont get first class everytime #airlinepilot #pilotsoftiktok #femalepilot #womeninstem
Even on regionals, the field is still dominated by males and overall, only 9.5% of pilots are women in the USA. I don’t see that letting up nor do I see it as an inherent problem (all should be welcome, whoever is willing to put in the time). Yet I am very happy to see young female pilots like Johnson so boldly rising in the regional ranks.
CONCLUSION
Congrats to Sabrina Johnson for becoming a commercial airline pilot at such a young age and for your great social media content. Keep up the great work and don’t let the naysayers get you down!
image: sabrinaleej_ / Instagram
How can I take her as a serious pilot when she has a tik tok page? Ugh,.
a lot of pilots have tik tok pages. It raises a lot of awareness about pilot life. Why shouldn’t they use a vast audience and reach to educate and entertain? Fucking boomers i swear
I’m definitely not a boomer. But I am an adult. That is why I am not on tik tok.
TT seems to provide the biggest opp for creators to go viral quickly. I refuse myself. No TT, no Twitter, no Telegram, no Snap. Too many apps. no thanks.
Congratulations to Sabrina. I’m a big supporter of young pilots, FYI my 23 year old son also flys for a regional.
What!? this an outrage! A women pilot?! Obviously she got this job because of discrimination against a white man! I’m never flying woke skywest again!
How do we know this is a woman? Are you a biologist?
She is in the position she is in because of her hard work, dedication, and determination. It is a very, very, rare site to see a person of her age sitting in the pilot seat. She has earned something that is unheard of. I cannot recall ever seeing someone so young earn the level of responsibility that she has. With those accomplishments, should come a sense of pride and self worth. She can be the better person and not respond back to those who demean her by lowering herself to their level. She should not let those who make those comments put a chip on her shoulder. Be the better person you are, the person who earned where they are in life through hard work, dedication, and determination.
@Average Republican…. Your comment shows that you stereotype people. Stereotyping is the same mental mindset, way to thinking, that is used by racist, sexist, and others.
You might be right.. I just need tucker to come back to tell me what to think
IMHO….. both Fox and CNN try to influence people, tell them what to think. Both exclude facts that do not support their agenda.
Life is finite, life is short…. I would rather spend my time learning how to earn points so I can take my wife on a beautiful vacation for next to nothing. Creating memories with her. That’s how I ended up on this website. We will be going to Hawaii for three weeks with flight and all but two hotel nights paid for with points 🙂
take care and have a great night Average Republican!
You sound like a RINO. there’s not enough anger and outrage in your posts to be a real republican like me.
Enough.
@Matthew, at first glance, she seems a million times better than the FA who shares really dubious travel tips (not sure if you or someone else covered her). Based on your embedded video, she even has a disclaimer about non-rev travel.
It’s ridiculous (but not surprising) that people say that kind of crap to her. Gotta love her response, though.
As an aside, one of @Kyle’s posts this Sunday didn’t have a comments section. Was that an oversight?
Skywest is based out of St. George, UT (SGU) not SLC. It’s a small city much closer (geographically, climatically and perhaps even culturally to LAS).
My first thought too. If you want us to care about her age at least get the facts of the story right
What are you smoking? The city was corrected long before you clicked over.
Tiktok is bad and it makes her look unprofessional. Also I’m sure skywest has a strict social media policy in regards to appearing in uniform on social media.
Was just reading how a former regional captain was fired for making a video criticizing United pilots. He had his uniform on in the video so I guess it makes sense if violating sm policy. He’s with AA now but more of an influencer than anything. Constantly in Dubai, NYC, London. I guess some convert from the pilot life to the influencer life successfully.
As a Captain for SkyWest myself, I can tell you with 100% certainty that no passenger has ever told her that they wouldn’t trust her on their plane. And her made up response to that made up comment is just as much nonsensical.
Absolutely. This cheap PR stunt to promote her TT page could be smelled from miles away. Can’t believe Matthew fell for it.
I wouldn’t be so 100% about that. Every time I fly with a young FO, passengers always ask “Are they actually going to be flying?” ” Are they even old enough?” “They’re so young, how can they have experience?” And everytime they have concered looks on their faces. Every. Time.
I’m glad you posted on this. I am not used to seeing younger first officers in the office especially on the 772s and the 77Ws. It makes me uncomfortable. Especially when I’ve seen the seniors flying the plane in the DC-10s the 764s and the 772s and 77Ws forever. But I guess this is what its come to in a post pandemic world (senior pilots retiring and the pilot shortage).
Yawn. Young attractive female pilot with a chip on her shoulder.
I’m sure she is an amazing pilot. I’m more worried that she uses Tik Tok than what her age is.
To tell passengers “Get off my plane” in a public forum would have been cause for disciple at least and discharge at worst back when pilots were adults and airlines cared.
If I saw that she were flying my plane, I think I would get off as I would have doubts about her maturity.
At least United’s pass travel policy explicitly says employees are not to discuss pass benefits with passengers.
While she is not actually flying, she is speaking to an audience that could reasonably be assumed to be passengers no less than if she were sitting next to them.
I predict she will never make it to the Big Leagues.
You’re right that she needed to carefully respect United’s pass travel policy.
Will she be able to do her nails and hair in the cockpit?
I would like to “axe” her about the money “exetera”…
Definitely NOT exaggerating about the travel benefits. I could literally go to Japan for $80 as a flight attendant. Most airlines have joint agreements.
But these days, premium cabins are often filled up, making it a bit more precious.
I had a very young pilot (kind of looks like her) next to me as she was on the flight to get to her another, which also happened to be the one I was connecting on. I was excited for her and to see a young female slaying it. The next flight was a smooth take off and flight but the descent and landing was scary as heck and obviously one of inexperience because the weather was good. I don’t normally get scared flying but I would question pilots this young from my own experience.