GROUNDED

There was something else in the air that night which made us feel that the flight we had just operated was somehow significant. Whether it was anticipation of our impending doom or just a realisation that a tidal wave was rushing towards us and we were trapped on the beach, unable to escape its inevitability, I will never know, but ultimately, although I did not know it at the time, this was a very significant flight for me because it turned out to be the last flight in eleven years at my airline, in a career spanning more than thirty years and five different bases. The fact that there are still fewer than 500 female airline captains in the world today is part of the reason that I wanted to tell my story. I have a voice, it is my responsibility to use it to benefit other people, I may be grounded, at the moment, but this isn't necessarily the end of my flying story, it never is when you fly, because flying is not something you do, flying is something you are.