Pilot Tammie Jo Shults sets an example for young women everywhere

School girls have a new heroine this week. Tammie Jo Shults was the pilot onboard Tuesday’s ill-fated flight from New York to Dallas. She safely negotiated an emergency landing after one of the aeroplane’s engines broke up, throwing debris into the fuselage. One passenger died after being partially sucked through a broken window.

This could so easily have been a much bigger tragedy. That no one else on board that plane died is thanks to the skill and bravery of Shults. The audio of her calmly informing air traffic controllers, ‘We are single engine. Descending,’ followed by: ‘There is a hole and someone went out,’ is astonishing to hear. Her name should be echoing around assembly halls and her image adorning classroom posters.

Women pilots – or the lack of them – made headlines earlier this month when gender pay gap campaigners dissected statistics from companies like Ryanair and Easyjet and decreed that although male and female pilots generally earn the same, there are simply too few women in the captain’s seat.