ABU DHABI // When Shareefa al Bloushi applied to join Etihad's pilot training programme, she was reluctant to let anyone involved in the selection process see her. "I'm short," said the 5ft 2in (1.57m), 24-year-old Emirati. Miss al Bloushi feared that her height, or rather lack of it, would immediately rule her out of a place. She need not have worried. When Miss al Bloushi expressed her concern to an adjudicator over the phone, it was met with laughter at the other end.
She is now in her fifth week of ground training, and is a special cadet - the airline's 100th. Miss al Bloushi has always been fascinated by aviation, but after spending several years working in information technology in the finance sector, believed it might be too late to change career. Eventually, however, she made the move: "I saw advertisements in the newspaper and decided I really wanted to do it.
"My parents encouraged me. They said, 'If this is what you want to do, just go for it.'" Her friends, though, "were very shocked. They never thought I would end up in aviation. While friends expected her to stay in IT, she says "there was something hidden in me" that wanted to be a pilot. After a month of medical and psychological tests, Miss al Bloushi was accepted into the programme earlier this year. "I worked hard for it and, thank God, I passed all the tests," she said.
Miss al Bloushi is on an 18-month programme at the Horizon International Flight Academy in Al Ain. It involves 750 hours in the classroom and 205 hours of in-flight training. Afterwards, she hopes to obtain her Airline Transport Pilots Licence and continue as a first officer. She will also have to pass the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority's exams. "Maybe at the end of this year I'll start flying. I can't wait for that," said Miss al Bloushi, who was raised in Abu Dhabi.
She is a member of Etihad's 10th class since the programme began in June 2007 and is one of six Emirati women to join. The first class graduated in February this year and its members are continuing their training aboard the airline's fleet. Etihad hopes to have up to 30 women, of all nationalities, serving as cadets and first officers within the next year. "The recruitment, training and development of cadet pilots is of the utmost importance to Etihad Airways and an integral part of maintaining our position as a leading global airline," Richard Hill, Etihad's chief operations officer, told the state-owned news agency, WAM.
"I always thought there were a lot of girls out there like me," said Miss al Bloushi. "In the last three years, there has been a big jump in the UAE. A lot of girls can now do a lot of different careers." And to those women who feel similarly adventurous, her message was: "It's time to go and explore all the things they thought they could not try." jgerson@thenational.ae
