Latest news with #CaroleHopson
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I'm a female pilot - this is the phrase I use to get the passengers' attention
Carole Hopson doesn't take no for an answer. She became a pilot at age 50, flying with United Airlines, then eight years later achieved the rank of captain – and has now published her first book. In an exclusive chat with MailOnline Travel, the 60-year-old explains her inspiration, reveals why she thinks women make the perfect pilots and shares the unique phrase she uses to catch her passengers' attention. It was a fateful journey in a first class cabin that sparked Carole's interest in flying. The former journalist and brand executive was peering into the cockpit from her seat when the pilot saw her looking. 'He said "come on up front". And I sat in the jump seat all night across the North Atlantic watching the stars and the pilot's buttons and switches and I just knew I had to do this,' reveals Carole. It was her boyfriend - now husband - that bought her her first flying lesson, which Carole describes as the 'moment' she knew 'he was a keeper'. That first flight? 'It was unworldly. It was orgasmic,' says Carole. From that moment, she knew she had to quit her job and retrain. And it was at flying school that Carole first heard of Bessie Coleman, the subject of her debut novel A Pair of Wings. Bessie became the first African American woman to earn a flying licence in 1921. Carole says: 'It changed my life. I had been to several universities and yet I had never heard of Bessie Coleman. How was that? It disturbed me profoundly and I said "Jeez, I should do something about this". And I wound up writing the book. 'Bessie's mother was born a slave in Texas. Her mother had 13 children, nine lived and Bessie is 11 when the Wright Brothers make their first flight. Bessie's stunned and she knows she just has to do it. 'But none of the flight schools on either coast, none of them will admit a black woman. 'So she winds up going over to France, which means she has to learn French. At age 26, she starts learning French in night school and when she's proficient she goes over to France and she learns to fly from combatant soldiers. She comes back to the US and barnstorms all across the country.' Carole says she was incredibly inspired by Bessie's tremendous journey and bravery. Much like Bessie, she's also faced barriers to her career. Although she went through flight school quickly, Carole had a child soon after completing her exams, followed by a second. She explains: 'It seemed like I had worked so hard to bring these children into the world, now why would I run out of their world? So I stayed home and I blinked, and 14 years flew by and I was 50. By that time, I said to my husband "either I get to the airlines now, or I'll never get there". 'I've gotten plenty of nos. "Oh you'll never make it to a major airline. Oh you'll never make captain. You're too old for that! You're too black for that! You're too much of a woman.".' Bessie Coleman (above) became the first African American woman to earn a flying licence in 1921. Carole says: 'At age 26, she starts learning French in night school and when she's proficient she goes over to France and she learns to fly from combatant soldiers' Carole is one of around 150 Black women pilots, who make up fewer than one per cent of America's pilots. She wants to change that. The pilot runs the Jet Black Foundation, whose goal is to send 100 Black women to flight school by 2035. 'Most of our talent pool as pilots has come from the military,' explains Carole. 'They were and are magnificent. But we need to look for a talent pool that's never been tapped. 'Women especially are built for this mission. We're resourceful. We understand how to build teams quickly. Prioritising is something I learned as a mom, you have so many things you're juggling. And if I can do it, if I can make that [career] change, anyone can.' The mother of two even uses her experience as a parent when she needs to get her passengers' attention onboard. Carole reveals: 'I come out before every flight and say "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard". And every once in a while the PA system isn't as loud as I need it to be. So I usually say, "Ladies and gentleman, I'm gonna use my mom voice". It always brings a giggle.' Despite becoming a published author, Carole would like to continue flying for as long as she can. 'There is something about the wonder of watching an airplane overhead that gives me the tingles even now. The responsibility, the training, the work, everything in it is all about the people behind you. 'The plane doesn't know if I'm a woman, or a man, if I'm black or white, if I'm young or old. The airplane knows how I command it.'
The Independent
25-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Meet the woman who became a United Airlines pilot at 50 after 20 years as a journalist and brand executive
Becoming a pilot seemed "ridiculous, impossible" after she finished high school. But Carole Hopson is living proof that the seemingly impossible isn't necessarily a barrier. She remained resolutely determined to fullfil her dream — for decades. And after a 20-year career as a journalist and brand executive, she eventually became a United Airlines pilot at the age of 50 and today is one of only around 150 professional Black female pilots in the United States. That's less than one percent of all pilots in the country. The 60-year-old, who lives in New Jersey, reveals that she is highly "internally driven", but also recalls how she was inspired by pioneering pilot Bessie Coleman, who in 1921 became the first African American woman to earn a flying license. She first learned of Bessie's story when she attended a Women in Aviation conference and was given a coffee cup by a friend decorated with Bessie's portrait on one side and a mini biography on the reverse. "Those 50 words have changed my life," says Carole, who couldn't believe there was so little in the public domain about this daughter of a Texas slave who would one day be called Queen Bess. Carole was instantly inspired, telling The Independent: "She did what I wanted to do. But she was learning to fly at a time when American women were getting the right to vote." In response to her moment of inspiration, Carole has penned a historical novel called A Pair of Wings (Cassava Republic) that charts Bessie's pathway to the skies. Carole explains: "Here's a woman who was in the wave of the first African Americans to go from the South to the North. She was part of the great migration. "They moved from slavery to an agricultural area where they worked farms and even became sharecroppers to the Industrial Revolution as World War One happened. "These are the people who made everything that made the war go, from the clothes and the munitions and the armaments and the shoes to everything else. "Anyway, at 26 she wants to fly so badly she learns French at night. By 29 she's conversant. Then she goes over to France on an ocean liner, past crumbling lighthouses in the North Atlantic, and learns how to fly from dog fighters in the First World War." She eventually returned to the US and forged a career in exhibition flying. "This is a remarkable human being," says Carole, "so why don't we know about her? That's an outrage." Carole describes A Pair of Wings as "an attempt to remedy Bessie's absence from our historical memory of women who accomplished extraordinary feats". And to write it, Carole went to almost every site that Bessie journeyed to. She took biplane lessons, so that she could know what flying aeroplanes from another era was really like, and visited cotton farms so that she could learn about growing and harvesting. Carole adds: "Everything about Bess inspired me to not say no, but to say, 'I need to go forward.'" The United pilot's own story begins at the age of just four, when she recalls visiting her grandmother's house in South Jersey and gazing at planes flying overhead as she lay in the garden. She recalls: "I would fantasize about those planes, 'Where were those people coming from? Where were they going? What were they eating? Eating was a big thing. Who and how many people were upfront in that great big window office in the sky? How many engines were there? And what kind of airplanes were they?' "And my grandmother would come out and she would take a piece of paper and teach me how to chart how many airplanes were coming and where they were coming from. "And that started two things, my wanderlust and curiosity. And then later, when I was 11, 12, 13 years old, that became my excuse to get out of chores – I had to go watch the planes." Fast forward to the end of Carole's time at college and she remembers becoming a pilot being a flight of fantasy. She reveals: "I worked throughout college and finished and flying just seemed ridiculous, it seemed impossible. "I became a newspaper reporter, a police reporter… and one day I went out on a date with my husband to be and asked me what I wanted to do. "I was 30 years old and it was the first time I'd ever let it leave my lips. I said, 'I want to fly an airplane.' And he said, 'Wow. I never knew that about you.'" Taking note, he bought her surprise gift certificates to a local flight school. Carole recalls describing the flight experience as "orgasmic" to her husband and at the age of 36 she enrolled in flight school full-time, graduating at the age of 37 in 2001 after the couple had moved from New York to New Jersey. But when September 11 happened, the couple took stock, with Carole's husband suggesting that they have children while waiting for the aviation industry to recover. They had two boys when Carole was 38 and 40, two boys who would put her flying career in a holding pattern. Carole reveals: "I fell completely in love with them, and I blinked. Flying was so much less important than making sure I did a good job with these two little ones. "But I continued to fly as an instructor, which gave me a lot of flexibility. I could run over to the airport, fly a two-hour flight and come back, for instance. I didn't have to have the arduous career of, say, leaving on Monday and coming back on Thursday." She continues: "I closed my eyes — and 14 years passed right by. By the time my kids were in middle school, I had turned 50." The dream of being a full-time commercial pilot was still there, though, and Carole said to her husband, "It's now, or it's never." Having not only been a journalist but also an executive for iconic brands like the National Football League, Foot Locker, and L'Oréal Cosmetics for over two decades, Carole applied to United Airlines for a job and was offered a role as a pilot for United Express, the carrier's regional arm. She then went on to become a United first officer on a Boeing 737 aged 54, earning her captain's stripes in 2022 and flying to destinations including the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. She describes United as "wonderful", adding: "United is the best of the major airlines, in my opinion, and that's why I sought it." Carole reveals that passengers often mistake her for cabin crew, but reasons: "That just lets me know our cabin crew is fantastically dressed and lovely, and that means that that's what they think I am. "And I'm so internally driven that those things are not distractions for me. I have a job to do, and it's to keep people safe, and that's what United has hired me to do. And I am not distracted from that mission one iota." What would Carole say to a Black woman who wants to follow in her footsteps and become a pilot? She replies emphatically: "Good God, do it. Here's the first thing you need to do — take a discovery flight and find out if this is for you, because this field will self-select. "If this is not for you, you will know, and if it is for you, join every one of the organizations, from the National Gay Pilots Association to the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals and Women in Aviation. They are amazing. They give out scholarships, provide mentors, and they will show you the path — breadcrumbs along the way. You don't have to do it from scratch. This is a wonderful time to explore and see that." Aspiring Black female pilots in America can also contact Carole's Jet Black Foundation. She explains: "My goal is to send 100 Black women to flight school by 2035. Why? I believe that we're a talent pool that has never been sourced. "It's a great talent pool. I think we're built for this mission, and I think we should be a talent pool that gets sourced. So, the Jet Black Foundation. We have a pilot shortage. "Now is the time."
