Emily Howell Warner, the first female airline pilot and captain for a major airline, died July 3, 2020. She was 80.
Born in Denver in 1939, Warner fell in love with flying when she was 18, according to the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Over the next 15 years she logged 7,000 flight hours and earned numerous FAA certificates and ratings — private pilot, commercial, instrument, multi-engine, CFI, and Airline Transport Pilot.
She was a flight instructor from 1961-1967 and by 1973, she had been a chief pilot, air taxi and flight school manager, FAA pilot examiner, and in charge of the United Airlines Contract Training Program for Clinton Aviation.
“She persevered through years of training male students who went on to pilot for various airlines, and applied for an airline pilot’s position with Frontier Airlines in 1973. After a grueling simulator test, Ms. Warner was offered the opportunity to realize her dreams,” her bio on the website of the National Women’s Hall of Fame says.
“She made aviation history almost every time she climbed aboard an airliner,” the bio continued. “She was the first female pilot for a scheduled U.S. carrier, the first female captain, and in 1986 commanded the first all-female flight crew in the U.S. She was the first woman member of the Airline Pilots Association, pioneering the way for today’s women pilots.”
Warner retired in 2002 after 42 years in aviation, where she logged more than 21,000 hours of flying.
In 2015, Granby-Grand County Airport (KGNB) in Granby, Colorado, was renamed Emily Warner Field in her honor.
Emily Howell Warner gave me my checkride as a 747 LCA in 1998 from LAX to HNL in 1998. The next day she did the same for the other pilot from HNL to SFO while he evaluated me. Following the landing in SFO she said “ not a bad landing for a Pitts pilot”. Her uniform used to be displayed in the Smithsonian, I’m not sure it still is.
Hi Ann,
This is Capt Nivedita Bhasin, B787 Capt Air India .
Lovely article.
Emily and I have been members of the International Society of Women Airline Pilots. ISA+21
In my opinion you should correct your headline to read FIRST WOMAN AIRLINE PILOT IN AMERICA.
INDIAN AIRLINES had recruited its first woman pilot way before in 1966 She was Capt Durba Banerjee.
You can look her up on WIKIPEDIA.
It’s very important not to distort History.
Thanks
Thank you,
Aa I wrote in my post, history should be as it happened and told that way.
i will make note of your information.
Ann Pellegreno
Thanks, I will look forward to the updated article
Usually, when i respond to an article, I use the title of that article in my response for clarity.
So who really is the first female airline pilot in the world?
I believe Helen Richey was one of the first ones. I will have to check on that.
I always admired Emily. Didn’t she pose standing in the cowling of a big jet airliner?
I am so proud of the more than ten thousand female airline pilots of today!
Ann Pellegreno
A very STRONG, COURAGEOUS, woman! Worked professionally with Captain Emily at FRONTIER AIRLINES and LATER as a “Partner” as a PROGRAM MANAGER for United Airlines Flight Crew Training facilities in Denver Colorado. Truly a woman of VIRTUE and CHARACTER, a person that led by example and always available for guidance, reinforcement and assistance. Her efforts opened the doors in so many aviation careers for women of the world. God’s Blessings dear friend….Captain Dale F. Buss PhD
I had thought my flight instructor at Merrill Field in 1962 was the first female airline pilot – Nancy Howard. After her instructor/charter stint with Red Dodge’s Melridge Aviation there in Anchorage, she then went to work for PNA – Pacific Northern Airlines as a first officer and later to Captain. She went on to fly for a number of airlines, finally taking a job with Boeing in Seattle as a training captain and delivery pilot – by whjich time her name was Nancy Howard Lane. I think it was pancreatic cancer that cut her life short. She joined PNA and made Captain well before 1973, when Emily went to work for Frontier.
There’s some inaccurate record keeping going on here.
Mike
i had thought that Emily Warner was the first. As researcher and writer, my motto has always been:
History should be as it happened and told that way!
i had not heard of Nancy’s career and and the dates of her joining an airline when she did.
Please advise with more accurate dates if you can.
Thanks, Ann Pellegreno
An outstanding aviator and mentor to many.
Rip, Emily Howell Warner it’s nice to see someone that loved aviation this much.
Job well done