On October 18, 2017, Southwest Airlines turned to Twitter to celebrate a big moment: their first ever "unmanned" flight on a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft!
No, the flight wasn't crew-less, but it was still technically "unmanned" since the entire crew was female.
The plane was flying from St. Louis to San Francisco. It wasn't until the crew arrived for duty that they realized they were all women.
Of course, they were excited about their all-female crew. The pilots and flight attendants posed together and snapped a photo. They sent a few pics to Southwest Airlines' corporate office, who then immediately shared them with their followers on Twitter.
Fans of the airline were just as happy to see the "unmanned" flight crew and shared their congratulations in the comments!
While this isn't the first all-female Southwest flight, it is the first one on this specific Boeing airplane. Check out photos of the crew below!
[H/T: ScaryMommy]
On October 18, 2017, Southwest Airlines tweeted three photos of their first "unmanned" flight.
The photo got a lot of attention, and within just five days the post had over 23,000 likes and over 4,800 retweets.
Southwest wrote:
The first “unmanned” Southwest flight on a @BoeingAirplanes 737 MAX 8! All-female Crew pic taken before flying STL – SFO.
They also explained that this wasn't the airline's first ever all-female crew, though it was for this particular aircraft.
Southwest wrote, "This was specific to our 737 MAX 8 aircraft, only weeks old at the time!"
According to Boeing, "The 737 MAX family is designed to offer the greatest flexibility, reliability and efficiency in the single-aisle market."
The MAX 8 seats up to 200 people, has LED lighting inside, and offers large pivoting overhead stowage bins.
Many fans of Southwest Airlines shared their congratulations with the crew.
One person wrote: "We do know the best man for the job can be a woman. After all this is 2017!"
Lots of parents were excited to see this Tweet and show it to their daughters as inspiration.
One man shared a photo of his daughter in an airplane cockpit and wrote, "Southwest, thx for helping inspire my daughters on what is possible and reinforcing they can become empowered women."
Another account wrote, "Congrats to Southwest first unmanned flight, what a great country we live in!"
"Love it! Hope there are many more," wrote yet another fan.
Some people even wished they could have been on the flight with this awesome all-female crew.
One man wrote: "I totally would've loved to go! Women are awesome; don't let anyone tell you otherwise!"
While this might not seem like a big deal to some people, it is actually a pretty big accomplishment.
There are almost 600,000 pilots in the U.S., but less than 7% are women.
Please SHARE this article with your friends if you'd love to go on a flight with an all-female crew!
