All-female Delta crew flies 120 girls to NASA headquarters to inspire more female aviators

An all-female Delta Airlines crew flew 120 girls to NASA headquarters in Houston to raise awareness of the aviation gender gap and inspire more women to become aviators in a “male-dominated industry.”

Delta’s 5th annual “WING” flight — Women Inspiring our Next Generation — was held in celebration of International Girls in Aviation Day. The crew carried girls between the ages of 12 and 18 from Salt Lake City to Houston Sunday, according to a press release from Delta Airlines.

“Delta’s WING Flight originated in 2015 as an effort to diversify a male-dominated industry and expose girls to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers at a young age. This year’s anniversary makes over 600 female students who have taken to the skies with Delta through the program,” wrote Delta Airlines in the press release.

Aside from the pilots and cabin crew, every other facet of planning the flight was orchestrated by women. The ramp agents were working on the ground, gate agents in the terminal, and air traffic controllers guiding the plane into the sky were all women.

In Houston, the girls toured NASA’s Mission Control Center, Building 9, Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston. They were also met with mentors in other sectors of the aviation industry, including Delta’s Technical Operations team, and later had lunch with NASA astronaut and aerospace engineer Jeanette Epps.

The students from Salt Lake City included girls from Advanced Learning Center, Bryant Middle School, Granite Technical Institute, Jordan Technical Institute, Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy and Salt Lake Center for Science Education, according to the press release.

“It didn’t seem realistic to go after a career in aviation, but today I realized, ‘Hey, I can do this too,'” said Katelyn J., a 12th grader from Advanced Learning Center, to Delta Airlines.

.@Delta flies 120 girls to NASA to promote gender equality in annual all-female WING Flight https://t.co/I4KlfZ1ZW5

— Delta News Hub (@DeltaNewsHub) October 6, 2019

For more information about the WING flight, you can read the full press release here.

KRDO Only 2019