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Female pilot's brutal comeback to disrespectful male passengers

A female pilot has been praised for her snappy comeback to two disrespectful male passengers.

Charlotte Knowlson, who works for UK-based EasyJet, wrote on Twitter she was baffled by why two male passengers felt it was necessary to make jokes about her being a female pilot.

Ms Knowlson claims one of them said, “I won’t make any jokes about female drivers then”.

Charlotte Knowlson, a pilot for EasyJet, has shared offensive comments two male passengers made towards her on Twitter. Source: Instagram/ CharlotteThePilot
Charlotte Knowlson, a pilot for EasyJet, has shared offensive comments two male passengers made towards her on Twitter. Source: Instagram/ CharlotteThePilot

“Are you the pilot? If I’d known that I wouldn’t have got on,” she claims the other said.

But while Ms Knowlson said her reaction was to “be professional and laugh”, she later shared their comments on Twitter and had a snappy comeback for the two passengers.

“Fact is, I can fly an £80 million (A$142m) jet and you can’t,” she tweeted.

Her tweet has been liked more than 94,000 times and received more than 11,000 re-tweets.

The pilot later tweeted “it is this attitude that puts women off and another barrier stopping them from going into male dominated careers”.

“I didn’t get where I am today by listening to these kinds of comments. I’m not offended, I’m not disheartened,” she added.

“I’m saddened by the fact that this is the attitude some still have and think it is OK to make these comments to women.”

Twitter users have praised Ms Knowlson for calling out the two male passengers with some labelling the men’s comments as “pathetic”.

“Well, if they don’t like women pilots they’re free to get off and walk,” one user tweeted.

Another woman, claiming to be a police officer, claimed she’s heard similar comments in her 17-year career.

“I react much like you,” she tweeted.

“(It) just takes one little girl to look up to me and say I want to be like you when I grow up and all is right in the world.”

Former Star Trek actor and human rights activist George Takei also called out the two male passengers on Twitter.

“While comments like these cleared haven’t hindered her success, her anger that she has to deal with them in the first place is certainly justified,” Takei tweeted.