Emily Howell Warner, a pilot who was credited with breaking a tropospheric glass ceiling in the 1970s as the first woman hired to command the flight deck of a commercial airliner in the United States, died on July 3 in a nursing home in Littleton, Colo. She was 80. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease and an injury from a fall two days earlier, her brother Dennis Hanrahan said. Industry and professional organizations have hailed Ms. Warner as a trailblazer in the cockpit: as the first woman to be hired permanently to take the pilot’s seat on a major American airline; as the first woman to achieve the rank of captain on such an airline; as the commander of the first all-women commercial crew; and as the first female member of the Air Line Pilots Association. After graduating from high school in 1957 and with college unaffordable, she thought she might become a flight attendant, then known as a stewardess. Never having been on a plane, she boarded a regional flight to assess the job firsthand.

Source: International New York Times July 17, 2020 21:22 UTC