A mother and daughter have made history by flying the friendly skies from the same cockpit. Captain Holly Petitt and her daughter, First Officer Keely Petitt, recently flew their first Southwest Airlines’ flight together and became the first mother-daughter pilot duo for the carrier.
The pair made their historic trip on July 23rd, when they flew from their hometown of Denver, Colorado, to St. Louis. “The much anticipated maiden voyage as the first mother daughter team at Southwest Airlines has arrived. It’s been a very emotional morning for me” Holly shared in a Facebook post that day. “One moment you are holding this tiny little premature baby in your arms and in the blink of an eye she is sitting next to you on the flight deck of a Boeing 737 jet!”
Holly’s dream of being a pilot came after riding in the jumpseat as a flight attendant for another airline, according to Southwest. So she started taking flying lessons while raising three kids with her husband, and Keely soon followed in her mom’s footsteps. When she was 14, she decided to become a pilot and after earning her license, she interned with Southwest in 2017 and her career in aviation began. “It's been a dream come true,” Holly says. “First, I found this career and fell in love with it, and then that one of my kids fell into this and in love with this career too. It's surreal.”