Fortunately, most of the responses are positive and supportive but there were people who were unfairly critical she told Insider. Some even went as far as to claim she was pretending to fly planes in her videos and was not a bona fide pilot.
“They say, “I wouldn’t trust you to fly a plane” all the time. And I’m like, “Hey, I wouldn’t trust you to be on my plane,”’ Johnson added.
In one video, Johnson calls out a comment from a man who wrote: “pilot at 21? Now I’m scared to fly. You should still play with dollies.” He went on to imply she bought her license to fly without earning it.
“I have eight years of flying experience,” she said, explaining that she started her flying career “much earlier” than most people and had “little to no social life” during her years at college in order to get her licenses and qualifications.
The young pilot has also been mistaken for a flight attendant by airport gate staff even while wearing her official pilot uniform.
“Its jarring to me because they work at an airport. You know what the pilot uniforms are,” she captioned a video posted in 2022.
Age aside, Johnson said simply being a female pilot in a male-dominant industry was tough. Around 9.5 per cent of pilots are women according to the Pilot Institute. Because of this, Johnson said she wanted to inspire other young girls and show them women can be pilots too.
Challenges aside, Johnson said she was “addicted” to flying and loved taking in the views from up high.
“My favourite part of flying, in general, is the sights. On the cloudiest day, I pop above the clouds and see the sun and the sunset. You just can’t beat the sights,” she said to Insider.
The cheap airfares were also a perk, she added, as she only needed to pay taxes for tickets she purchased for herself.
