First African-American Female Captain For Delta Air Lines Featured At 'Dinner With A Slice Of History'

On February 2, 2018, in honor of Black History Month, the International Women’s Air & Space Museum (IWASM) will host Dinner with a Slice of History featuring a special presentation by local pilot Stephanie Johnson, the first African-American female captain for Delta Air Lines. Dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m., with the program beginning shortly thereafter. The cost for this event is $15 for IWASM members and $17 for non-members.

Johnson is a 1991 Kent State University (KSU) graduate where she earned a bachelor's in Aerospace Technology. As a student, she earned her Private, Commercial, Flight Instructor, and Flight Engineer certificates with Instrument and Multiengine ratings. After graduation she was a flight instructor at KSU as well as at the Medina Municipal Airport in Medina, Ohio.

In 1993, Johnson was hired as an Airport Operations Agent at Burke Lakefront Airport here in Cleveland, Ohio. She also flew as an on-demand charter pilot and then went on to earn her Airline Transport Pilot certificate in 1995. Later that year, Johnson was hired by Mesa Airlines. In 1997, she was hired as Northwest Airlines' first African-American female pilot where her first assignment was Flight Engineer on the Boeing 727. Johnson later qualified as First Officer.

She was later a First Officer on the Boeing 757 and 767 with Delta Air Lines. In September 2016, Johnson became the first African-American female captain for Delta Air Lines and now flies the Airbus A320.

Johnson, who is also a retired United States Air Force Lt. Col. is married to Delta Air Lines pilot Andre’ L. Johnson with whom she has three children.

The 2018 Dinner with a Slice of History series is made possible from the residents of Cuyahoga County through a grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

(Source: International Women’s Air & Space Museum news release. Image from YouTube video posted by Narrative Digital Media)

FMI: www.iwasm.org