Judy Cameron

Judy Cameron CM (born 1954), is a Canadian retired commercial airline pilot. She was the first Canadian woman pilot to fly for Air Canada, the second woman to fly for a Canadian commercial airline, the first Canadian female captain of a Boeing 767 and the first Canadian female captain of a Boeing 777.

During a summer job interviewing pilots for Transport Canada, she became interested in an aviation career. She ended her Arts studies at the University of British Columbia and drove eight hours on a motorbike[1] across British Columbia to enroll in flight school at Selkirk College in Castlegar.[2] She was the only woman in a class of 30 men and had little background in math or physics. When she graduated in 1975, she was Selkirk's first female graduate.[3] Cameron went on to work for regional airlines in Alberta, and also spent a year co-piloting a DC-3 in Inuvik, NT, where she loaded planes on her own for supply runs to oil fields in Tuktoyaktuk.

In 1978, at the age of 24, she was hired by Air Canada, becoming the airline's first female pilot.[4] She was the first woman hired as a pilot for a major Canadian airline and the second woman hired to fly for a commercial airline, following Rosella Bjornson.[5] Air Canada held a press conference and the news hit front pages—US pilot Emily Warner had only been hired in 1973. Passengers sometimes treated her poorly, hurled abusive and demeaning comments and even passed her garbage.[6][2]

Cameron was promoted to captain in 1997 and in 2010 became the first female captain in Canada of a Boeing 777. In 2015, she was awarded the Elsie MacGill Northern Lights Award.[7] She retired on May 24, 2015, after a 37-year career with Air Canada, in which she had achieved 23,000 flying hours.[8]

References
  1. "Judy Cameron Flies Through the Glass Ceilin".
  2. "Canada's first female commercial pilot retires". Toronto Star. 22 May 2015.
  3. "Northern Lights Awards showcase high-flying women in Canada - Skies Magazine". Skies Magazine. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
  4. "Air Canada's first female pilot marks final flight before retirement". 24 May 2015.
  5. "Meet Air Canada's first female pilot. Before they hired her, the airline pored over NASA studies to evaluate 'emotional stability' of women". Financial Post. 26 October 2015.
  6. Morris, Hugh (5 February 2016). "Why are there so few female pilots?". The Telegraph.
  7. Owram, Kristine (23 October 2015). "Air Canada's first female pilot blazed a trail, but industry still dominated by men". Financial Post.
  8. "Air Canada's first female pilot recalls learning to fly in Castlegar". 2 November 2015.
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