Aviation experts estimate the worldwide shortage will be 34,000 by 2025. Barriers such as the high cost of flight school have prohibited many people from underserved communities from pursuing careers in aviation.Īs the aviation industry combats a looming pilot shortage, recruitment has been more top of mind. NBC News reports less than two percent of pilots flying today are Black. “Learning all the intricate pieces of it, the programming of it in the simulator itself was another thing,” he continued.Ĭarothers’ emergence into aviation comes at a ripe time as the industry makes more intentional efforts to attract Black and brown and female pilots into the cockpit. “I had to do research on what went into a computer and then what parts and components were needed to make sure it worked,” Carothers told KOAT. He said he designed and built his own flight simulator computer when he was 14 years old to hone his skills for when he is in an actual cockpit. At the time, he said his favorite part was flying a Cessna and his least favorite part was the reading material prior to taking off.Ĭarothers grew to love all aspects of aviation. In 2017, at 11 years old, Gabriel Carothers participated in his father’s camp. The organization, named after the first African-American pilot in the Air Force Thunderbirds, exposes 60 young people from underrepresented communities to aviation and STEM with a hands-on aviation camp. “Fig” Newton chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., which is registered as a nonprofit. Air Force pilot.Ĭarothers’ father, Alex Carothers, is the president of the General Lloyd W. The young aviator followed in the footsteps of his father, who is a retired U.S. The teenage pilot completed his private pilot check ride just 10 days after his 17th birthday on July 25. He thought it’d definitely be interesting to take me and my brother up for a flight when we were 5 and 6 years old,” Carothers said. “My father had a family friend who had an airplane that used to fly us. He recalled one of his earliest moments his father took him and his brother up in the air. “I wasn’t really thinking about making history, I was just thinking about flying and doing what I like to do everyday,” Carothers told KOAT.Ĭarothers is no stranger to the friendly skies. Gabriel Carothers is the youngest African-American licensed pilot in New Mexico history.
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