Female pilot mistaken for flight attendant by airport employee

There’s nothing quite as embarrassing as being mistaken for a member of staff somewhere when you’re merely a customer.

But when you do actually work somewhere and your colleagues don’t realise what role you have, that’s a whole different ball game.

So, when one pilot was wrongly thought to be a flight attendant - well, you can understand her frustration.

Sabrina Johnson took to TikTok on 23 October to share the awkward encounter whilst she was clearly dressed in her uniform and ready to fly the plane.

“Gate agent looked me in the eye today, [and] asked if I was the flight attendant (common occurrence),” the 22-year-old wrote on top of the video, whilst appearing to sit in the cockpit of the plane.

While the qualified aviator told her followers in a separate video that it’s not an ‘insult’ to be mistaken for her beloved colleagues on board, it is ‘jarring’ to hear that from ground staff who are well aware of the uniform differentiation between pilots and cabin crew.

TikTok/@sabrinaleej

“It's jarring to me because they work at an airport. You know what the pilot uniforms are,” @sabrinaleej explained in the caption.

In a separate video, Sabrina explained how it’s not offensive for her to be called a flight attendant, but it is offensive when the term is used to undermine all her ‘hard work’.

She said in the video: “Being called a flight attendant is not an insult. It’s an insult when it’s used to try to put me down after all my hard work.

“When you do that, you are insulting both me and flight attendants.”

Others swiftly took to the comments section in agreement with her sentiments, with one person outlining that training for both roles is very different, but both roles are equally needed in the industry.

Piper Aircraft said: “YES! Pilot training and flight attendant training are very different but BOTH very valid and impressive. Keep killin’ it girl!”

Instagram/@sabbrinajxx

“As a flight attendant currently going through flight training, thanks for saying this. We have different jobs, but BOTH matter so much. We’re a team,” another said in agreement.

“No job should be put down, I respect everyone from the CEO to the janitor,” someone else penned.

Although in recent moments there has been growth in the number of women-identifying pilots, the percentage of women in aviation still remains low.

In fact, in 2021, just 9 percent of women made up the total number of pilots, according to Pilot Institute.