Captain Barrington Irving who made history as the first Black and youngest pilot to fly solo around the world is focusing on the next generation of pilots, and helping more Blacks to find careers in aviation.
According to NBC News, less than two per cent of commercial airline pilots are Black.
To assist in providing those who aspired to become pilots with the skills necessary for success in the aviation sector, Irving established the Barrington Irving Technical Training School. He recently held a ceremony in Miami, Florida’s Opa-locka Airport, where Irving began his career as a student, to honour 15 new graduates who successfully finished his training programme.
“I am so proud of them, and to know what they started from,” Irving told News 7 Miami. “Opa-locka Airport is where I got my start. These young people are signing with various companies in the community who said, you know what, ‘We’re going to give you a chance, we’re going to give you an opportunity to flourish within our industry.’”
One of the attendees of the graduation was the Miami Dade mayor, Daniela Levine Cava, who shared her support for the training school. “They are essential to our economy, hard to fill, and we have talent here at home that we are growing,” she said at the event where the school’s future students were also announced.
At the end of the ceremony, graduate Tremaine Johnson shared his excitement about his career path and how he hopes to be an inspiration to others.
“(I want to) just expand my knowledge of aviation,” Johnson said. “Fueling trucks, parking airplanes, networking with everybody (in) aviation, and lending a helping hand for people behind me that want to get into aviation as well.”
