JET BOSS: A Female Pilot on Taking Risks and Flying High

Captain Laura Savino was on the Boeing 777, 767, 757, 747, 737 and Airbus 319/320 as an international airline pilot for United Airlines.

Laura flew for Eastern and Pan Am regionals before that. On her way to becoming an airline pilot, she worked as a flight instructor, charter pilot, freight pilot, aerial sightseeing tour pilot, ferry pilot and aircraft repossessor. She has flown planes as tiny as a car and widebody aircraft larger than a football field.

Captain Savino takes you directly into the cockpit for an exclusive look into the boy’s club of airline pilots – told through the eyes of the first female pilot many of them ever flew with.

“No math,” Laura’s counselor told her in high school. “That would ruin your GPA.” Laura had other plans. One teenage act of rebellion changed everything for her at a time when STEM opportunities for women were rare. If passengers on a commercial jet had trouble imagining a woman flight engineer – which Laura became – imagine their disbelief to see her as the pilot flying their widebody jet around the globe.

She exposes both the harsh truths and the exciting adventure of her years in the airline industry as a commercial pilot, reveals the emotional impact of 9/11 on pilots and writes honestly about what it means to be a working mother while keeping her dreams alive.

Laura’s powerful story is a blueprint for how to defy expectations and follow your inner compass to do things you never thought possible.