all-female crew lands an airliner into a country they're not allowed to drive in. (

[Ichingcarpenter]

Royal Brunei Airlines first ever female trio in the flight deck: operating flight BI081 from Brunei to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

1. K&R n/t

[Hoppy]

2. All female crew? That ain't nuthin'.

'50's "blue" comedienne, Belle Barth told about the U.S. Navy's plan to launch a nuclear submarine run entirely by women. It was to be called the "Nutless."

[MindPilot]

5. A few years ago there was a story about an all-female USAF bomber crew.

Instead of a cockpit, they called it the box office.

[Thor_MN]

9. A submarine with no seamen?

[snort]

13. The deeper you look

the more wrinkles you find in this sad sack saga.

[Divernan]

3. That country being Saudi Arabia

This is such a subtle but awesome way to rub it in to the Saudis. They can't even claim "The West is trying to impose their beliefs on our Islamic kingdom" coz the flight is from Brunei which itself is an Islamic kingdom!

[Le Taz Hot]

4. Curious to know if all three are Muslim

of if the headgear is obligatory because of the country they're in.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. The kingdom they fly for is Moslem

but women have rights there and its not such a big deal

I got what I could on this story

[pampango]

12. Kudos to Brunei if "women have rights there and its not such a big deal". Thanks for the story. n/t

[iandhr]

18. We shouldn't be so quick to praise Brunei.

I am pretty sure you get killed if you are gay.

[Hortensis]

26. Let's praise them for letting women be pilots.

Step by step. For most of these nations, their middle ages weren't very long ago at all, and it has taken us very long to get where we are. Even if we just count from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, that's over 250 years.

[NightWatcher]

6. So, they cooked dinner for their husbands before the flight?

I'm so kidding. I just wished they wouldn't have worn those silly religious head dresses.

[greymouse]

11. silly religious artifacts

Some day I will read DU, and I won't encounter a bigoted post about religion. That day has not yet arrived. It is unacceptable to be bigoted about race or gender, but about religion, that's okay apparently.

[snooper2]

16. in a couple hundred years religion won't exist....except for the very few like flat earthers LOL

[valerief]

17. Because religion creates and perpetuates bigotry. nt

[greymouse]

23. sure, Jimmy Carter that bigot

I'm surprised his name is even allowed to be mentioned in DU.

[KamaAina]

25. And don't even get me started on Martin Luther King

[valerief]

28. He has a megachurch? A parish? Temple, etc.? Since when?

He's a layman, isn't he?

[greymouse]

29. oh, I didn't realize

one had to have a megachurch, a parish, or a temple to be a christian. Silly me.

[valerief]

30. To be a religion. It's okay. Someday you'll understand how the world works. Just be patient

and open-minded.

[greymouse]

33. I'll never be open minded about bigotry.

Bigotry about religion and ageism, the two forms of viciousness that are apparently acceptable even among people who should know better.

[valerief]

36. You're wrong. And besides, more people attack atheism (which is NOT a religion) than any religion.

No one shows any respect for atheism. They choose to offend atheists with their religion relentlessly. Again and again. We atheists get no relief from their assaults. We get unsolicited "God bless you" and other such nonsense. It's painfully rude and disrespectful to us, but do we usually complain? No. We take it on the chin, over and over, god-assaulted with no end in sight.

I don't know how we take it.

[LanternWaste]

38. you believe an absolute lack of religion would result in a absolute lack of bigotry among humanity?

People create and perpetuate bigotry; religion is simply one of many mechanisms for doing so.

Unless of course, you believe an absolute lack of religion would result in a absolute lack of bigotry among humanity, of which I'd love to see any supporting evidence.

[Liberalagogo]

20. And....

[NightWatcher]

22. Yes, we make fun of a mystic based form of control and oppression

that should have been relegated to the dustbin of history more than a hundred years ago.

I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings. Forgive me.

[Skittles]

32. plenty of people detest misgoyny

IN ALL ITS FORMS

[treestar]

7. I wonder how that happened

Does it ever happen here? I'm wondering if in Brunei the qualified females have to be on one crew because the men won't work with them. If not so, was this planned - to happen to have the crew all female (it's pretty likely the entire make up of the pilots is mostly male).

[greymouse]

10. rather than the men refusing to work with them as a protest

it's more likely a religious separation thing.

[KamaAina]

27. A number of airlines did that for International Women's Day

which was last Tuesday. Air India flew one from Delhi to SFO.

[treestar]

37. Ah, I see

thanks!

[jtuck004]

14. Huh. That's really something. I would like to see them greeting boarding passengers at Kansas City.

[denbot]

15. Enlightenment knows no bounds..

As long as a spark of intellect flickers, so shall the world see the light.

We owe the renascence to the Muslim World's shepherding of the last fragments of accumulated knowledge via the library's of Alexandria.

We also owe these women the spark of equality, that their daughter's may someday think that this photograph is unremarkable.

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. Saudi Arabia due to behead three teenagers on Friday

Saudi Arabia is reportedly going to complete its new wave of mass executions that started in January.

The monarchy put more than 47 people were executed that nonth, although some state affiliated media claimed the number to be 52 people.

In a new article published in Okaz, the most read liberal newspaper in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom is going to behead three convicted prisoners imminently on Friday.

“The three terrorists are waiting for the implementation of retribution against them will complete the first batch of 47 on Saturday (2 January)” the report Said.

The report says that the prisoners are convicted of affiliation with terrorist groups” “embracing a takfirist approach contrary to the Quran and Sunnah”.


Ali al-Nimr, Dawood al-Marhoon and Abdullah al-Zaher were 16 and 17 when they were arrested at a peaceful protest.

Among them Ali al-Nimr is of more distinction due to his kinship with Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, the Shia cleric put to death in January after what human rights groups called a “politically motivated and grossly unfair trial”.

- See more at: http://en.institutomanquehue.org/issues/global-affairs/saudi-arabia-due-behead-teenager-friday.html#sthash.Xaj2QQVY.dpuf




Bad spelling not mine.





Oh and BTW

if any of you have traveled to obscure Portuguese or Spanish small villages outside of the normal travel circles you will find almost all catholic women wear head dresses.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

21. I wonder if they let them taxi the aircraft after landing? That's a form of driving.

During Bush War I, Saudi Arabia told our unit not to send any women pilots over, as the Muslim ground service personnel (all men) would have difficulty taking orders from a woman.

The Reserves caved into their demands until -- in an act of defiance and unity -- every Reserve KC135 female pilot, including our squadron's instructor pilot, handed in their resignations on the same day. (You can do that in the Reserves, apparently.) The following day the Reserves told the Saudis to get screwed, and the women flew alongside their male crew members as they always had.

BTW, I think it only takes two pilots to fly the 787 -- very few, if any, new airlines use flight engineers anymore. Two of the pilots appear to have four gold bars on their epaulettes, which means they are both aircraft commander qualified. My thought is that one is an instructor pilot.

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. It does only require two.....

and you are correct in saying the flight engineer position is a thing of the past.

However, most long haul flights will have a relief pilot on board, and these aircraft are equipped with a crew rest area to allow the off duty crew person to sleep.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

34. Wow, is that crew rest area nicer than we had in the USAF C141!

Where we tried to sleep you could look up and see the cables that controlled the flight surfaces, and the temperature was about 100 degrees.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

24. Were they allowed to taxi to the gate?

[Dont call me Shirley]

35. Look at those beautiful women!