American Airline's first female pilot says she was rejected by every other carrier
FORT WORTH, Texas - American Airlines celebrated International Women’s Day by honoring its first female commercial airline pilot.
Bonnie Tiburzi began working for the Fort Worth-based carrier in 1973.
She was a flight instructor and a charter pilot before becoming an American Airlines pilot.
"People say, ‘Well, the sky is the limit.’ It’s not the limit. The sky is absolutely limitless, and it’s just filled with opportunities," she said.
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Tiburzi said few companies wanted to hire women 50 years ago.
"I got turned down by everybody. I think it was American Airlines with just a fundamental fairness of hiring a woman finally. And they did. But every other turned me down. And one airline – a major airline but I won’t tell you their name – wrote me back and said ‘We’re never going to hire a woman, so don’t write us again.’ And that was the end of that," she said.
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Tiburzi was also the first woman to earn a rating as a flight engineer on a turbo jet aircraft.