22-year-old pilot Sabrina Johnson has spoken out online about the negative comments she gets for being a young female pilot. Johnson uploads videos of her travels to TikTok, where she has garnered over 72,000 followers and about 1.5 million likes. Johnson flies both planes and helicopters professionally.
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Some TikTok users attack Johnson and question if her occupation is legitimate, with one commenter stating that she is “not really flying the plane.” Regarding the online hate, Johnson told Insider, “They say ‘I wouldn’t trust you to fly a plane’ all the time. And I’m like, Hey, I wouldn’t trust you to be on my plane.” According to the Pilot Institute, only about 9.5 percent of pilots are female.
Young Female Pilot Gets Hate on TikTok
Johnson seems to be a professional who does not let negativity get the best of her. She technically first started training to be a pilot at 14, when her father signed her up for an educational discovery flight. Of this experience, Johnson said, “I always tell him that was the biggest mistake because that sent me down the rabbit hole of where I am now. I couldn’t stop.”
Johnson works for an airline that she has not named, and while she loves her job, she reveals that online is not the only place she faces judgment. She said that some passengers mistake her for a flight attendant because of her age and gender, but she does not let this deter her.
Johnson stated that she loves her job, and she opened up to Insider about her favorite parts of her occupation. She said, “My favorite part of flying in general is the sights. On the cloudiest day I pop above the clouds and see the sun and the sunset. You just can’t beat the sights…It’s like vacation 24/7, it’s awesome.”