![Black Pilot, U.S. Air Force, United Airlines Pilot, Theresa Claiborne](https://www.blackenterprise.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2024/05/IMG_2550.jpeg)
by Stacy Jackson
Could 24, 2024
Theresa Claiborne’s closing flight has landed.
Captain Theresa Claiborne, the trailblazing pilot who turned the primary African American lady to fly within the U.S. Air Power, celebrated her retirement from United Airways with a closing flight on Could 23.
Claiborne’s almost 43-year aviation profession got here full circle as she landed a United 787 Dreamliner in Newark, New Jersey, after a journey from Lisbon, Portugal. CNN reported that upon arrival, the pilot obtained the symbolic water cannon salute as she celebrated with family members. Reflecting on this transition, Claiborne remarked, “After this, strolling by the airport, I received’t have a uniform on…Individuals will simply take a look at me like I’m only a passenger like everybody else; that’ll be slightly totally different.”
The Virginia native’s ardour for flying took root at age seven after her first flight. She joined the Air Power Reserve Workplace Coaching Power in school, solidifying her path after experiencing the fun of piloting a T-37 jet coach. “As soon as I acquired that first style of being within the air and being in control of the airplane, I used to be like, ‘Yeah, that is what I’m going to do,” she mentioned. Following the completion of her pilot’s license simply months after graduating from California State College in Sacramento, Claiborne was commissioned as a second lieutenant.
The pioneering aviator shattered limitations in 1981 as the primary Black lady to fly within the U.S. Air Power. “I nonetheless get chills once I take into consideration the truth that I used to be the primary,” Claiborne mentioned. Her milestones continued as the primary Black lady command pilot and teacher for the KC-135 refueling jet.
Claiborne joined United Airways in 1990 as a flight officer earlier than being promoted to captain.
Of her longtime employer, she mentioned she feels blessed to have been in a position to work as a pilot for the airline. She acknowledged her important accountability as one of many fewer than 150 Black girls pilots within the US. The completed aviator is the present President of Sisters of the Skies, a nationally acknowledged non-profit group, which BLACK ENTERPRISE beforehand highlighted for empowering Black girls to turn into pilots. Based on the group, the crew of skilled aviators works to enhance the variety of Black feminine pilots in each navy and business aviation. CNN famous that Claiborne might be stepping down from her place with Sisters of the Skies however vowed to proceed mentorship. “To nonetheless impart that data on younger folks, and notably younger black girls, that they will do that,” Claiborne mentioned as she appears to be like to the long run.
Her future plans embrace changing into an creator and the dream of at some point piloting a historic WWII plane or Tuskegee Airmen’s legendary Crimson Tail fighter.