Sky High

Merav Schwartz is El Al’s first female pilot.

May 1, 2009

David Lazarus
Canadian Jewish News

Question: If you knew your airline pilot was a woman, would it make a difference?

When you’re a female airline pilot and a passenger mistakes you for a flight attendant and asks for a Coke, there’s only one thing to do - get it.

Merav Schwartz, who in 2001, became Israel’s first licensed female pilot for El Al, has grown used to such incidents, but not necessarily inured to them.

While she shrugs her shoulders and even chuckles good-naturedly at such mistakes, Ms. Schwartz, who spoke recently at a Montreal event, said that commercial aviation remains very much a man’s world.

That’s the case everywhere, the 39-year-old married mother of two said, but especially so in Israel, which has deeply ingrained macho culture.
Ms. Schwartz’s regular route is on a Boeing 747 between Tel Aviv and New York.

“I think there may be six percent of pilots in the U.S. who are women. Israel has two women [commercial] pilots out of 500,” she said.

But it’s not like things haven’t changed for the better. Any woman in Israel is now free to apply to El Al - the sky is literally the limit. But few actually do.

Ms. Schwartz, however, did not want to make it appear that she has not received support from men as well. On one of her first flights, she recalled, the captain admitted that having a female first officer was “new” to him, yet he was fully supportive.

“So nice,” Ms. Schwartz said.

At the same time, Ms. Schwartz, who has not yet earned her captain’s wings, gives credit to women for serving as mentors and role models, and for cheering her on during her years of aiming, so to speak, for the stars.

“I was inspired by women and helped by women,” she said.

At age five, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Ms. Schwartz already knew her destiny as she watched Israeli fighter pilots streak through the sky. A family friend even used to refer to her as “Mirage,” after the French-built fighter jet.

Ms. Schwartz didn’t take her first flying lesson until age 18, lessons she paid for through babysitting, tutoring, and with some help from her parents.

She had to amass 1,000 hours of “fly time” - meaning solo piloting in any type of aircraft - in order to apply to El Al’s commercial pilot training program. Gradually, she got the hours - even by seeding rain clouds to accumulate them. She graduated to 747s from 737s.

Ms. Schwartz acknowledged that it was a long, difficult road to where she is today. Along the way, she was the recipient of an Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship to further her studies. Not surprisingly, Earhart is one of her heroes.

Ironically, Ms. Schwartz noted, women were able to serve as military pilots in pre-state Israel, but not post-state, and that didn’t change until the Israel Defence Forces was sued by a woman.

Similarly, during the 1990s, El Al was forced to change its policy to train only former Israeli Air Force pilots when the airline was sued by a friend of Ms. Schwartz’s, Orit Katzir, on the grounds of sexual discrimination. That opened the door for her.

Ms. Katzir and other women “paved the way for me,” she said, even though Ms. Katzir ultimately opted to work for another major airline. Another female friend, now working for Israel’s domestic Arkia Airlines, also served as an invaluable role model, Ms. Schwartz said.

She sees herself in a similar role - as a mentor and role model for other women. Ms. Schwartz noted that despite the advances made by women, stereotypes persist, even among women.

“When I say I’m a pilot, they want to know who is home taking care of the children? A man would never be asked that.”

Often at home taking care of children Yuval and Ofrir in New York - she also has a home in Tel Aviv - is her husband, Amit, who works on Wall Street.

Having him as a spouse was like winning “grand prize” in a lottery, she said.

“When I’m away, they’re [the children are] in good hands - his.”