Of all the things that airline passengers should care about — schedules, airfares, fees, delays, weather, that guy across the row from you who refuses to put his shoes back on — one thing that shouldn’t matter at all is the pilot’s gender, as I’m pretty sure the Y chromosome contains no special aviation-related genetic information. And even if you do think that only brawny men named Rex or Ace should be flying your airplane, what is the point of leaving a nutty, angry note when your pilot happens to be a woman?

And yet a passenger on board a WestJet flight from Calgary to Victoria, BC, felt compelled to do just that, putting pen to napkin and expressing an anger so outdated that it would embarrass a caveman.

“The cockpit of an airliner is no place for a woman,” it reads. “A woman being a mother is the most honor, not as ‘captain.'”

It also appears to state that “were [sic] short mothers, not pilots,” and includes the helpful postscript directed at WestJet: “I wish WestJet could tell me a fair lady is at the helm so I can book another flight!”

The pilot reportedly responded in a Facebook post that has apparently since been deleted. According to Metro it read:

“To @David in 12E on my flight #463 from Calgary to Victoria today. It was my pleasure flying you safely to your destination. Thank you for the note you discreetly left me on your seat. You made sure to ask the flight attendants before we left if I had enough hours to be the Captain so safety is important to you, too. I have heard many comments from people throughout my 17 year career as a pilot. Most of them positive. Your note is, without a doubt, the funniest. It was a joke, right? RIGHT?? I thought, not. You were more than welcome to deplane when you heard I was a “fair lady.” You have that right. Funny, we all, us humans, have the same rights in this great free country of ours. Now, back to my most important role, being a mother.”

“I just couldn’t believe there are still people in this country that think like that,” the pilot told Metro. “It just shocked me.”

The folks at WestJet released a statement saying, “We’re enormously proud of the professionalism, skills, experience and expertise of our pilots, and we were very disappointed to find this note.”

Passenger’s sexist note left on WestJet flight stirs pilot’s heated response [Metro]

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