Ethiopian Airlines First Female Captain

[EtAF]

Ethiopian Airlines First Female Captain
Source: Ethiopian Airlines
15/10/2010
Ethiopian Airlines today celebrated the maiden flight of its female Captain Amsale Gualu Endegnanew. Captain Amsale proudly took off her first flight from the left hand seat of the flight deck of a Q-400 aircraft from Addis Ababa to Gondar then to Axum and finally returned back to Addis Ababa after a total of 3.6 flight hours.

Captain Amsale joined Ethiopian Airlines Pilot Training School on July 10, 2000 and started her career as first officer on November 26, 2002. Since then, she has trained and worked on Fokker-50, 757 and 767 aircraft as first officer. Captain Amsale has been able to complete successfully all the necessary training requirements and passed through rigorous checks to gain her four stripes. She has a total of 4475 flight hours under her belt when she becomes the commander-in-chief of her flight.

Ato Tewolde G. Mariam, Designate Chief Executive Officer of the airline, families and friends of Captain Amsale warmly welcomed her at the Addis Ababa International Airport on her return flight from Axum. During the occasion, Ato Tewolde said, "We congratulate Captain Amsale on her outstanding achievement. Captain Amsale deserves the recognition as she has demonstrated tremendous dedication to reach the pinnacle."

In her brief statement to the audience of staff, friends and family members Captain Amsale said, "It is a great privilege to become the first female captain of the national carrier. I have been trained and passed through various ladders at Ethiopian Airlines. The company has been very supportive of my efforts to realize my vision of becoming a captain."
ET should train more women to deal with its shortage of pilots. I don't think the Middle Eastern carriers are ready for women pilots. ;)

[Farrell]

I don't think the Middle Eastern carriers are ready for women pilots.

You think wrong!

[cavortingcheetah]

If there is to be a misogynistic culture clash on this point then surely Ethiopia is an African country not a Middle Eastern nation?

[Neptunus Rex]

Yes, but in how many countries are lady pilots allowed to drive a car?

[411A]

Yes, but in how many countries are lady pilots allowed to drive a car?All, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, to my knowledge....no driving allowed.
However, there is one lady pilot in Saudi, last I heard.
Royal Jordanian started the ball rolling with female pilots in the middle east, as I recall, and even had, at one time, a female Dir Flt Ops.

[GoForIt]

Ethiopia is not an Islamic country... Christians are the majority, especially in Addis Ababa where they make up about 80 per cent of the population.

[cavortingcheetah]

Ethiopia is the homeland of Rastas.

[keitaidenwa]

I guess the original poster is trying to suggest the female ET captains will have more trouble escaping to better paying jobs in sandpit airlines than their male colleagues have recently had :}

[flyawaybird]

Congratulations are well in order, for this courageous lady, Capt. Amsale:ok:.
Keep it up and make sure you make a way for other female pilots by promoting Safety in Ethiopian Airlines. The world at large, especially in the Islamic Region, might in the future consider employing more women as pilots.;):D

[cavortingcheetah]

Ethiopia has quite a tradition of women in authority and when known as Abyssinia the country was more than once ruled by an empress. The route to power for these women often involved deep family intrigue, even intermarriage and the subtle use of that most feminine of weapons deadly poison. Most assuredly such tools as those, rumoured to be of the female trade, were not necessary in the rise to authority of Captain Endegnanew to whom one most assuredly holds out great congratulations. Jolly well done!

[Agaricus bisporus]

Ethiopia is the homeland of Rastas.


Sorry. Can't let bolleaux like that stand unchallenged.

Ethiopia is the country in which the bizarrely chosen figurehead of that caribbean-based cult lived and reigned.
Jamaica is the homeland of the rastas, ie where it was invented not many decades ago.

Ethiopia has nothing, nothing whatsoever to do with rastas apart from that, and it is hard to imagine an organization more alien to the society and culture of Ethiopia than rastafarianism.

[GoForIt]

Quote:
Ethiopia is the homeland of Rastas.
Sorry. Can't let bolleaux like that stand unchallenged.

Ethiopia is the country in which the bizarrely chosen figurehead of that caribbean-based cult lived and reigned.
Jamaica is the homeland of the rastas, ie where it was invented not many decades ago.

Ethiopia has nothing, nothing whatsoever to do with rastas apart from that, and it is hard to imagine an organization more alien to the society and culture of Ethiopia than rastafarianism.

Exactly correct!

[cavortingcheetah]

Right Ho, I'll neaten this up a little in the interests of theological exactitude.
The Rastas in Jamaica have worshipped since the 1930s, as a God Incarnate, Haillie Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, Lion of Judah (now deceased) whose pre regnal title was Ras Tafari and whom they regard as a second incarnate of Jesus Christ. Perhaps I should have said that the fountain head of Rasta lies in what is today called Ethiopia?
If you want to see a great plea for humanity disdainfully rejected by the international community you should watch Haillie Selassie's plea to the then League of Nations asking that the Italian invasion of his country be stopped. It's quite moving stuff.

[Naz]

Firstly, congratulations to the lady captain.

@cavortingcheetah - thank you!!!

@Agaricus bisporus and GoForIt - obviously HIM Haile Selassie did not share your views, since he acknowledged the Rastafarians, the need for repatriation and gave them land in Shashamane in central Ethiopia for the purpose - where a community of Rastafarians still lives today.

"....it is hard to imagine an organization more alien to the society and culture of Ethiopia than rastafarianism." How so? Rastafarians are both Christians and royalists. So, possibly not as alien as you think.

[Agaricus bisporus]

Quite so Cheetah, much as I said, though I think theology has as much to do with rasrafarianism as Haile Selassie, Mother Theresa or a Patagonian Wombat for that matter.

Curious choice, Selassie, as the second incarnation of JC. A more inappropriate candidate would be hard to concieve. Of all the billions of people to pick from why on earth choose such an anachronistic, feudal - not to say mediaeval and generally unloveable petty despot as him? Just too weird to be for real! Still, I suppose if you smoke enough...:ugh:

[cavortingcheetah]

John Buchan wrote Prester John in 1910 and that kind of started off the black second coming. Mosiah Garvey subsequently prophesied and made much of the birth of a black messiah in Africa. So the world of black Pan Africanism was ready for a figure head to emerge from their continent of origin. Voila and along comes Ras Tafari, the handsome young prince who would become Haillie Selassie. In that guise he gave Ethiopia its first written constitution. A stauch supporter of decolonisation, he presided over the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) I think I've seen worse cult figures adopted by our black brethren from the cradle of mankind.

[Agaricus bisporus]

Apologies for the thread creep!

HS was nothing if not self-obsessed, so merely "acknowledging" a bunch of wackos who revered him as a God is actually a pretty mild form of approbation and suggests strongly that he actually wanted to keep them somewhat at arm's length. Daft he was not.

Repatriation??? Of whom, and to where? Rastas were mostly born in Jamaica, so unless they'd been moved from there repatriation is a nonsense. Or is this some half-baled idea about "returning" naturalised caribbean blacks to Africa, whence they had not come, (neither had their Grandfathers in most cases) so again "returning" is a heck of a stretch of the imagination. Even if we make that stretch then what has Ethiopia to do with it? Did any caribbean slaves originate in Ethiopia? Unlikely in the extreme - its on the wrong side of Africa. So how "repatriate"?

OAU, yes, he did, and did well too, but supporting decolonization might be thought by some to indicate a less than perfect thought process, gicen the almost universal disaster it has prooved. Fine and well for a feudal king to call for this from a land that had never been colonised itself, and damned hypocritical given the way he himself cheerfully kept his people under mediaeval subjugation in a way that few if any colonialist regimes attempted.
Sure, he did bring a huge modernization in mny ways, but politically he was fixed firmly some centuries back by anyone else's standards. Even so as an African leader he was far, far better than many.

Rastas Christian? Well, I hadn't realised that.
But my limited knowledge of the subject suggests that the Son of God Christ is the bringer of peace, love and wisdom to the world, which in no shape or form fits HS, thus calling his appelation of Christ Incarnate into impossible question.
I thought the Second Coming of Christ (which seems to be what the rastas thought dear old HS was) was to last 1000 years of blissful peace followed by the Judgement of all souls. You'd think that Marxism would be claiming this as their ultimate victory, the Derg having so cruelly murdered "Christ" Himself, and Communism proved the supreme power in the world. Or not, as the facts so clearly show.
The facts make it clear that rastafarianism is way, way off track on this second coming business too. How thus do they claim to be Christian?
Or was HS not JC II after all, and they just made a (dope induced) mistake?
Rastas Royalist? Why? Cos they make daft claims about the godliness of the dead king of a country that they have no credible connection with and revere him as their spiritual figurehead? Does that make them Royalist, or just misguided?

I also don't think Christ, or HS, or the Ethiopian people in general would have any truck with being senseless on drugs all the time either, hence the remark about alien to the culture...

Shashame. Yes, thay do live there, where I understand they are regarded with bemused incomprehension by the locals. But Ethopians are nothng if not hospitable folk, so they rub along with them, even if they don't quite understand what they're about.

Which all boils down to taking the claims of some of the weirder modern "religions" with a huge pinch of salt and not treating them too seriously, or giving them too much credence.

Like calling Ethiopia the home of rastafarianism.

Now, as for Scientology -----I'm off to JetBlast!

[AfricanEagle]

Congratulations to the new Captain, well done!

[flyawaybird]

This is addressed to the British and American peoples.
I believe that the Aviation Industry has now quite a number of women flying as pilots and even as private pilots. In English language I have not seen the word "Pilotess":O:confused:. Will there be such word or this is wrong? Just asking a simple question, but not intendind to change the subject of "Aviation".:};)
I still think Aviation an interesting and highly respected subject. Having said that, I love this site.:ok:

[The Ancient Geek]

Hmmmmm.
In the early 20th century a pilot was referred to as an "aviator" and a female pilot as an "aviatrix". The world has moved on since then.

[cavortingcheetah]

This'll probably have some non contributory members running to the Mods and of course, perhaps rightly so and possibly this should all be moved to Jet Blast or deleted in its entirety. Still here's an off the peg digression in the interests of Ethiopian aircrew sartorial elegance.

In its etymology the word pilot has a meaning or connotation that is bi-sexual or perhaps even hemaphroditic. Apart from being etymologically incorrect the use of the word pilotess as suggested would be likely to be termed sexist by certain elements among the more structurally inflexible of the mind. It's possible that cases of moral outrage could be provoked by the discrimination inherent in such a distinction. Amelia Earhart wore woolly trouser to keep her warm on long oceanic nights. She wore skirts at other times. Not by the slightest stretch of the imagination could anyone call her unattractive or unfeminine. Howard Hughes never wore skirts in spite of the name of his aeroplane. These days by convention if not by desire and design all pilots wear trousers so that they may be amorphously sexless together. These Ethiopians ladies have adorned with their beauty the strange custom of cross dressing so prevalent among pilots.

http://www.tadias.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Pilot3.jpg

[atpcliff]

Hi!

Anyone with contacts for the new Female Captain at Ethiopian?

My sim partner (we just finished training) was the first female pilot and first female Captain at Air Jaimaica. She helped start a worldwide female pilot's organization, and is in several other women's pilots organizations. Most of the early female captains at the various US carriers are in these organizations.

They would like to invite Capt Endegnanew to join them. If I can get her email, or some other contact method, they will contact her.

A PM would be appreciated!!!

cliff
MIA
Atlas Air

[DHC6to8]

Congratulations to her for making Captain! I may not know her, nor will I probably ever meet her, but she sure has done well!
Flly safe sister,
6to8

[1900]

Why should we even be making an issue of gender? Who cares?

[cavortingcheetah]

Well may you ask who cares and I'd respond to that by replying that male and female sexist arrogant pigs probably care.

[1900]

I agree-the only ones who make a big fuss about gender are those in whose lives it is a huge issue, thus betraying their underlying sexist attitude!:hmm:

If you didn't care much about gender or classify people purely based on the configuration of their genitalia, gender would be a non-issue, as, I'm sure all those with a progressive attitude would agree, is desirable.

[cavortingcheetah]

Without gender and genitalia there would be no issue.