--- title: Sexist Note to Woman Pilot on WestJet Flight Goes Viral description: A passenger aboard a recent WestJet flight is being mocked far and wide after he scribbled a near-illegible and sexist note denouncing his female pilot, saying "the cockpit of an airliner is no place for a woman" and wishing he could have rebooked his flight canonical: https://time.com/13334/sexist-note-pilot-plane-westjet-flight/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-05T23:32:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:31.351Z og:title: Sexist Note to Woman Pilot on WestJet Flight Goes Viral og:description: A passenger aboard a recent WestJet flight is being mocked far and wide after he scribbled a near-illegible and sexist note denouncing his female pilot, saying "the cockpit of an airliner is no place for a woman" and wishing he could have rebooked his flight og:url: https://time.com/13334/sexist-note-pilot-plane-westjet-flight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sexist Note to Woman Pilot on WestJet Flight Goes Viral twitter:description: A passenger aboard a recent WestJet flight is being mocked far and wide after he scribbled a near-illegible and sexist note denouncing his female pilot, saying "the cockpit of an airliner is no place for a woman" and wishing he could have rebooked his flight twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Passenger's Sexist Note to Woman Pilot Goes Viral  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Mar 5, 2014 11:32 PM UTC  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Mar 5, 2014 11:32 PM UTC A passenger on a recent WestJet flight [left a crude](http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/airline-passenger-leaves-nasty-note-pilot/story?id=22784067), sexist note scrawled on a napkin denouncing the flight’s female pilot. “To Capt./WestJet,” the note says. “The cockpit of airliner \[sic\] is no place for a woman. A woman being a mother is the most honor not as “captain” Proverbs 31 (Sorry not P.C.) P.S. I wish WestJet could tell me a fair lady is at the helm so I can book another flight! Were \[sir\] short mothers not pilots Westjet.” The genius passenger—who, by all indications traveled safely from point to point on the woman-piloted flight—did not leave a name. The pilot, Carey Smith Steacy, posted the note to Facebook where it began its viral journey across the Internet. On social media people have been offering words of support for Steacy. WestJet told ABC News, “We are enormously proud of the professionalism, skills and expertise of our pilots and we were disappointed to see this note.” \[[ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/airline-passenger-leaves-nasty-note-pilot/story?id=22784067)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/13334/sexist-note-pilot-plane-westjet-flight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/13334/sexist-note-pilot-plane-westjet-flight/"},"headline":"Passenger's Sexist Note to Woman Pilot Goes Viral","datePublished":"2014-03-05T23:32:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:31.351Z","description":"A passenger aboard a recent WestJet flight is being mocked far and wide after he scribbled a near-illegible and sexist note denouncing his female pilot, saying \"the cockpit of an airliner is no place for a woman\" and wishing he could have rebooked his flight","url":"https://time.com/13334/sexist-note-pilot-plane-westjet-flight/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Airlines","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/13334/sexist-note-pilot-plane-westjet-flight/","name":"Passenger's Sexist Note to Woman Pilot Goes Viral"}}]}] ```