Female pilot calls out airport employee for mistaking her with flight attendant

A female pilot has shared how she is regularly mistaken for a flight attendant by her colleagues.

In a video posted on her TikTok last week, Sabrina, @sabrinaleej, sits in the cockpit of a plane with a strained look on her face.

“Gate agent looked me in the eye today, asked if I was the flight attendant. (Common occurrence)" a caption above the video reads.

“It’s jarring to me because they work at an airport. You know what the pilot uniforms are.”

Some viewers of the video were convinced that staff made the mistake on purpose, with one saying: "As a flight attendant, I'm offended for you. Unacceptable. They know our uniforms."

A second said: "I think everyone knows what a pilot uniform looks like how do they not know?"

A third wrote: "I would've replied 'no, I'm not, are you the pilot?' and when they say no, reply 'obviously, because I am."

Sabrina replied in the comments: "It's either they don't understand the epaulettes or they can't believe it. It's most girl pilots I know. But I have a platform to share the experience, so I do."

Sabrina later opened up about other times when she’s been mistaken for a flight attendant.

“It happens more often than I would like to see in real life between gate agents mostly,” she told the Independent.

“Those especially that have tried to issue me a flight attendant jump seat, and I would have to correct them, saying that I need the jump seat in the cockpit."

Some commenters suggested the comments had been made on purpose (Getty Images)

She added: "And a lot of people are very nice and they take the comment very well but every now and then it gets a little mean.”

Aviation is one of the industries with the biggest gender gaps in the world when it comes to different roles.

In 2021 just 4.7% of pilots in the UK were female, according to one study.

Globally just 5.18% of commercial pilots are women, the Air Line Pilots Association International trade union claims.

While overall statistics are patchy, in 2018, easyJet reported that out of their entire cabin crew, 71% were female and 29% were male.

Some airlines, including easyJet, have attempt to redress this balance with recruitment drives aimed at getting women in the cockpit.

In 2018 15% of the pilots starting at Luton for the company were women, which is significantly up on the easyJet wide average of 6% in 2015.