Meet the 26-year-old airline captain and her 19-year-old co-pilot

[jtuck004]

(CNN)Their combined ages are just 45. But that didn't stop 26-year-old captain Kate McWilliams and her 19-year-old co-pilot Luke Elsworth from flying hundreds of passengers to their destinations this week.

The young pilots manned a flight from London to Malta, after McWilliams earlier passed a course ascending to the rank of captain.
Their employer, the British carrier Easyjet, believes McWilliams has become the world's youngest commercial airline captain -- with co-pilot Elsworth also one of the country's youngest co-pilots.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/26/business/woman-26-easyjet-youngest-pilot-captain/index.html

Younger and younger...

[lillypaddle]

1. Whooo boy

[milestogo]

2. Maybe they work cheaper than the older more experienced pilots.

They can change the airline name to EasyDeath.

[plcdude]

4. Are you a

Pilot?

[LanternWaste]

7. And maybe they've both accomplished more by nineteen than you have to date.

And maybe they've both accomplished more by nineteen than you have to date.

As we're both simply speculating with no objective evidence to form a valid opinion leading us to nothing more than empty implications to cower behind, there's no-harm no foul, right?

[milestogo]

9. I'm not a pilot.

But whenever there is a crash they talk about pilot experience in terms of hours logged as captain or copilot. I don't think you can accomplish 'more' flying an airplane without flying more hours.

[Sherman A1]

11. Precisely

I for one would not be all that comfortable with a 26 year old Captain at the controls.

[Major Nikon]

12. That's because they are talking about the NTSB report

NTSB reports have all sorts of statements of fact, most of which will not be relevant to the accident in question.

How old someone is often does not relate to how many hours they have. I know old pilots with very few hours and young ones with a shit-ton of hours. It's also true that not all hours are the same. Flying a single engine piston aircraft in good weather and in low altitude conditions is a very different type of flying than flying a multi-engine turbine aircraft in bad weather and in high altitudes. Currency and relevancy of experience is also a big issue. Someone can have thousands of hours in various types of flying, but if they don't have recent experience in the category, class, and type of aircraft they are flying they may not be as safe as someone with a lot less time, yet more recent and relevant experience.

[Major Nikon]

15. Getting the ratings to do this is hard as hell

Even after the ratings come, there's all sorts of other challenges involved in flying at this level. Most people who try, fail.

[KT2000]

3. there is something to be said for

maturity and experience. This is one way to reduce expenses.
I'll take the older pilots thank you.

[tenderfoot]

5. There were pilots that young that flew missions in WWI WWII Korea Vietnam Iraq etc...

eom

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. Yup

Average age of the captain of a B-17 was around 21

[Liberal In Texas]

6. Boy Howdy

Wonder how many hours they have combined.

I have cars older than them.

[Major Nikon]

13. If I were to guess, I'd say the captain has around 6,000 hours of experience

According to the article she started flight training 7 years ago and started working as a first officer 5 years ago. A first officer for a major airline will accumulate about 1,000 hours per year or more if they are also flying on the side.

For reference, a 30 year old car driven on average of 30 minutes per day 365 days per year would not have that many hours. A car driven 200K miles at an average speed of 35mph would not have that many hours on it.

[msanthrope]

14. I have undergarments older than them. It pains me to admit that. nt

[Rex]

10. IDC

[Blue_Tires]

16. Bravo... Good on her...

She's living the dream!