Tweets by a female pilot working for easyJet have gone viral after she called out two male passengers for comments they made about her.
Charlotte Knowlson, who tweets as @pilotcharlotte, said one male passenger ‘joked’ he wouldn’t have boarded had he known she was piloting the aircraft.
Another said: "I won’t make any jokes about female drivers then."
In response, she tweeted: "Fact is, I can fly an £80m jet, you can’t."
The original tweet, posted a couple of days ago, has been liked and re-tweeted thousands of times.
She added: "Being used to this kind of humour, my reaction of course was to be professional, laugh and ask them if they were enjoying the flight," she said.
It was only when a fellow cabin crew member expressed their dismay over the men’s sexist behaviour that she asked herself: "Why is this normal?"
"It is this attitude that puts women off and another barrier stopping them from going into male dominated careers," she stated.
Among supporters, one person tweeted: "Thank you for being a role model for the next generation and calling out sexism for what it is – wrong!"
Others have been sharing photos of their daughters in response to the Twitter thread, all of whom aspire to follow in her footsteps one day.
Pilot Knowlson added: "My career is my dream, always has been."
"I always wanted to be able to inspire more women [to be pilots], especially the younger generations, so that we can change people’s perceptions on what is still a man’s world."
