Only seven percent of United States pilots are women, so to see two women co-piloting the same flight is rare. Even rarer? Seeing a mother-daughter duo co-pilot the same plane.
Dr. John Watret, the chancellor of Embry-Riddle Worldwide, an aeronautical university, recently tweeted a photo of Captain Wendy Rexton and her daughter First Officer Kelly Rexton co-piloting the same Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta on March 16.
He wrote: "'Just flew from LAX to ATL on Delta piloted by this mother daughter flight crew. Great flight. Inspiring for you women." He later tweeted that he meant to write 'young women,' not 'you women.'
Delta replied to Watret's tweet with, "Family flight crew goals!"
Watret discovered the mother-daugther duo when he heard a nearby passenger ask if her two children could look at the flight deck.
"The flight attendant said they could - and that they would be surprised," Watret told Embry-Riddle Newsroom.
Upon returning to their seats, Watret overheard them talking about the mother-daughter pilot duo which prompted him to ask to visit the flight deck, too.
Captain Rexton and First Officer Rexton aren't the only Rextons to work in the airline industry. Captain Wendy Rexton's father, Bill Brown, is a retired Northwest Airlines pilot, while her husband, Michael Rexton, is an American Airlines pilot. First Officer Kelly Rexton's sister, Kate Rexton, is a pilot, too.
While many were amazed and excited to see the mother-daughter duo, others made jokes about how hard it would be to work with their own mother.
"This is just the most amazing, wonderful news ever - seriously. My mother and I would never have flown together as crew. We couldn't even agree on having the radio on/off in the car," tweeted SharonDunn54.
"That's pretty cool.....question is, was mother holding on to the sides of her seat for dear life when daughter was at the controls? That's what my parents do when I'm driving anyway....." said bodz156.
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