Thailand: 23-year-old first to apply to become pioneer
female air force pilot
A 23-YEAR-OLD woman is one step closer to realizing her
dream of becoming a member of the Royal Thai Air Force’s pioneering batch of
female pilots after being the first to apply for the role during a registration
drive recently.
The aspiring aviator, Suwattana “Mai” Chanthalert, had
showed up first in line as the century-old air force was, for the first time,
looking to fill in five pilot positions for women.
Thai news site Khaosod English quoted her saying that with
the air force’s decision to open its doors to female pilots, “now men and women
have equal potential.” She added that “it is not necessary to divide people by
their gender.” Suwattana, who is from the Pattani province of southern
Thailand, said her father’s death during an insurgency attack in 2005 had
inspired her to join the military. She found herself taking part in an air
force youth program two years after the tragic loss and found herself
fascinated by the aircraft featured at the air force’s museum.
Women pilots in Thailand, the site reported, were still
underrepresented, even in commercial airlines, as only five percent of AirAsia
Thailand pilots were female.
However, the possibility of earning less in the Air Force
compared to a commercial airline did not deter Suwattana from wanting to be
part of it. Another local report cited by the news portal also found that 92
women had gained commercial pilot licenses compared to 5,000 men from 2003 to
2016, in a tally revealed by the Kingdom’s Office of Civil Aviation.
The move was part of Thailand’s security forces’ effort to
increase the presence of women into their institutions.
The report also noted that the metropolitan police force
announced late last month that it would promote three policewomen to station
chiefs for the first time in history.
