She is a princess and the first female pilot from Dubai’s royal family. Her highness, Sheikha Mozah Al Maktoum took to the skies as co-pilot as she flew an Emirates plane to Italy, making headlines when a video of her, filmed by her aunt, HH Sheikha Shamsa Al Maktoum, in the cockpit went viral on social media garnering over 12,000 views.
The video was captioned in Arabic, “May Allah protect you”, and it shows the pilot princess announcing the flight’s arrival to Milan’s Malpensa Airport as she announces to passengers, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your first officer Mozah Al Maktoum speaking. We are cruising at an altitude of 35,000 feet and we will be descending into the Milan airport shortly.”
The young Emirati royal passed the APP First Officer Programme from CAE Oxford Aviation Academy in April 2016 before she was able to fly for the first time in her first assisted flight assignment as a pilot for Emirates Airlines a year later. Announcing the princess’s achievement, her aunt and founder of Tashkeel, Sheikha Lateefa bint Maktoum, shared an image of her niece in her pilot’s uniform on Instagram with the caption, “My niece, our first female pilot from the family, on her first assisted flight as a commercial pilot. Proud of you! The sky is not the limit. As long as you can dream it you can achieve it.”
HH Sheikha Mozah told Vogue Arabia in March 2018 about her longstanding passion for flying, “When I was a child and traveled with my family, I always wanted to be in the cockpit. I used to sit there during the takeoffs and landings. I loved being there and asking the pilots questions; I never felt scared.”
Part of the the new wave of female Arab pilots from across the Gulf are, Aisha Al Mansouri, who became the first Emirati A380 female pilot by flying for Etihad Airways in 2016, and her sister, Major Mariam Al Mansouri, who became the first Emirati female fighter jet pilot in 2007.
