After 40 years of commanding the skies Air Jamaica's first female commercial pilot and
captain has retired her wings. In this week's edition of A Ray of Hope she recaps history
by sharing her transition from being a flight attendant to holding the highest rank a pilot can
attain with that story here's Kayan Morgan soaring the skies it's what maria ziadi haddad knows best
and loves most hailing from Montego Bay the retired commercial airline pilot said
her love for flying started when her mother first took her on a flight at the age of five
little did she know her fascination would develop into a four decade career as a teen mrs haddad
said she was steered towards female dominated jobs however at the time she wanted to study medicine
when that didn't worked out she went overseas to study social studies and psychology
however her heart had other plans plans which brought her back home where she applied for a
summer job at air jamaica as a flight attendant in 1974. i ended up being there for over three
years because as i started i started asking questions about how you know one could fly and
if they hired female pilots the vp of flight ops who was there he said no they didn't have female
pilots and they were not planning to hire female pilots a little disappointed however not daunted
mrs haddad said her eagerness to learn saw her on a familiarization flight six months later
it was at that moment she knew what she wanted to become it was epic and i said no i've got to do
this i've got to learn how to fly so as i earned the flight attendant pay i would save it up go
down to wings to make a tinsel pen taking six months of study leave she went to florida where
she earned a commercial license in multi-engine and instrument ratings back home she returned
to flight attending as she worked to pay off her loan she also did a little instructing on the side
her breakthrough came when a second officer pilot position opened up at air jamaica in 1979 as the
years flew by mrs adad matriculated to captain in 1996 being the first female captain to pilot
air jamaica a year later she created history again when she and her team commissioned the very first
all-female flight in the western hemisphere she remembers it like it happened yesterday 20 years
prayer when my mother maker were not even allowed to to to apply so it was a sense of accomplishment
for women generally mrs haddad spent over 30 years at here jamaica however where the airline sold the
caribbean airlines in 2010 she applied to atlas air in the u.s where she spent another 10 years
here she earned one of her biggest achievements piloting a boeing 747 aircraft she explained what
it felt like to be a captain everybody's nervous can they do it but i was successful that i would
put to hard work discipline focus help from colleagues and family and support from them too
mrs haddad says the gender stereotype associated with jobs are nothing but a facade and should
not be used to limit one's dream the only thing i think a man can't do is become pregnant and have
a child so you know we can we can share roles having dreams not giving up on your dreams and
your passions dreams and passions are there for a reason to motivate you with a ray of hope i'm keen