Originally Posted by
hans brinker
But I have to add, I guess you added the "female" because that is how you concluded that a PM/PF changeover had occurred. As gender is pretty much always irrelevant in these discussions, avoiding gender should be preferred, unless it is absolutely pertinent to the situation. Especially since it is invariably stated as "the pilot" versus "the female pilot", but never "the male pilot". Sure, it might sound silly to complain about this, but using only the minority gender when qualifying who it was is wrong, either both, or none. And would you have said "the black pilot" based on a picture of the crew after the event? (rant over. As an old, white, male in aviation)
No need to guess. The female modifier in my post came about from my initial transcription from ear to paper of the LiveATC audio and carried over to my post. Given the distinctive sound of a single female voice among a group of male voices, “female” was an easy tag to hang on certain radio transmissions to help sort out the key participants.
Note that the NTSB preliminary report uses (by my count) the female pronoun “she” seven times associated with the FO, while there are no uses of he/him to refer to the male participants in the incident. Thus, it’s no secret that the FO was female (I’m assuming here, of course). You’re welcome to contact the NTSB and counsel them how to update their style manual to appeal to the sensitivities of their client base.
Regarding your statement, “sure, it might sound silly to complain about this…,” yes, it does sound silly because it is silly. Let’s all stop the silliness.