AVweb actually has a policy about ignoring coverage of “youngest pilot” aviation exploits since they can and have led to disaster but a story out of the U.K. is one of the exceptions. Budget carrier easyJet has welcomed the U.K.’s youngest airline pilot and he said few have noticed, which is as it should be. Luke Elsworth is just 19 and holds a multi-crew pilot license and flies A319 and A320 aircraft throughout Europe. He began training for his commercial license nine days after turning the minimum age of 18 in late 2014 and by April of 2016 he was in the right seat of an Airbus heading from Gatwick to Airbus’ home airport in Toulouse, France
Flying for easyJet runs in the family and his father Paul is a senior captain for the airline. The younger Elsworth said there was no pressure from family to become a pilot but he’d been watching his father while growing up and figured it would work for him, too. Elsworth said passengers don’t seem to pay any attention to his age and there’s no reason they should. “If you’re good enough to be there, you’ve done the training and you’re suited towards it then I don’t think age really has an impact,” he told the Manchester Evening News. He said his next goal is to become a captain but in the meantime he’s trying to encourage young people to take up the profession.
