Esther Mbabazi wheels her bag towards the airstairs of the Boeing
737 sitting quietly on the tarmac at Kigali International Airport.
A short hop south with a
flying time of around 1 hour and 20 minutes. But for Mbabazi, 26, it
isn't about the destination.
As Rwanda's first female pilot, it's about the journey and her highest priority is to get passengers safely to their terminus.
As Rwanda's first female pilot, it's about the journey and her highest priority is to get passengers safely to their terminus.
"Growing up I wanted to
be a pilot when I was four," says Mbabazi, who became a pilot for
Rwanda's national airline carrier, RwandAir, at 24.
"I'd never been
inside a cockpit but I used to see a plane in the sky and I imagined
that thing must be flown by someone.
"I had to go for it. Even
though it looked like a long shot, it was my only shot -- that's how I
saw it so I went for it, and here I am."
During her childhood,
Esther's family would move on a regular basis due to her father's work
as a pastor.
But her desire to take to the skies never wavered, even
after her father passed away in a plane crash in the Democratic Republic
of Congo, when the passenger aircraft he was traveling on overshot the
runway and hit some terrain.
"From day one, he was
always my biggest supporter or fan," recalls Mbabazi, who lost her
father before turning 10."[But] an accident is an accident. Like I said,
if someone gets hit by a car, you don't stop driving.
"You can't live life being scared an in fear of anything. If something is bound to happen, you can't stop it."
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