THE record set recently by an Australian female pilot was extraordinary. She led the 4-person team of pilots which flew a 17-hour nonstop flight from Perth to London. Captain Lisa Norman's flight covered 9,050 miles without stop. Many male-operated record-setting cruises pale before it. Ms Norman has rightly received a lot of kudos for her great feat.
Compare the Australian lady pilot's achievement to the tragic end of the Bangladeshi co-pilot Prithula Rashid in the disastrous plane crash in Kathmandu on March 14. There are just a few female pilots in Bangladesh at present who can efficiently occupy a pilot's seat. Prithula was one of them. She had been assisting the main pilot Abid Sultan all along the flight until it met the mishap. But what she had received in return? As many people were expressing their shock and sorrow over the crash on Facebook on that day, they were stunned to come across some atrocious statuses given on late pilot Prithula Rashid. These heartless people did not hesitate to blame the poor dead pilot for the crash. According to them, the Dhaka-Kathmandu flight met the accident because it had a 'female' co-pilot in the cockpit. We do not find proper words to describe those misogynists who have not spared even a dead brave pilot.
Prithula tried frantically to save the plane and the passengers. This deed eluded the women-hating people. There are, however, consolations for the pilot's admirers. Most of the Facebook statuses showered praise and mournful love on Prithula. She was termed an 'extraordinary woman'.
Mithila Parvin
Baily Road, Dhaka