Black pilot teams up with Georgia lawmaker to help more minorities earn licenses
Black Georgia pilot teams up with Rep. Hank Johnson on bill to help minorities earn pilot's license
Omar Brock said he had never seen a Black pilot before. The day he finally met one changed his life forever. Now he's working with Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson hoping to pass a bill that would provide a grant to help more minorities become pilots in a field that rarely sees them.
There could be up to 10-thousand planes in the sky at any given time according to tracking company FlightAware. Somehow, the number of minority pilots in the cockpit remains shockingly low.
"I had never seen a Black pilot," Omar Brock, a Black pilot himself, told FOX 5. "Simply becoming a part of the 3% that make up the pilot body means anything is truly possible."
Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson is hoping to change those statistics with a bill he recently re-introduced.
Brock used to work as a flight attendant, but the day he finally met a Black pilot changed the rest of his life. That was the moment he knew he wanted to be the one in charge in the sky.
So, he went on to become a commercial pilot.
"Some of the barriers in becoming a pilot [are] lack of mentorship, lack of resources and lack of exposure," Brock said.
That's why the pilot began working with Rep. Johnson to help more minorities find their way into the field.
(From left to right: Omar Brock, Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson) (Supplied)
Johnson re-introduced the Minorities in Aviation Act which would establish the Bessie Coleman Aviation Grant. The grant is, of course, named after the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license.
Johnson said this work comes during a labor shortage, especially evident in the aviation field.
"Everything from pilots, to aerospace engineers, to air traffic controllers," he added.
Brock founded a self-titled foundation in Kennesaw. The Brock Foundation is aimed at getting youth involved in the field at an early age. He saw it as the perfect opportunity for a partnership with the legislator.
"We go out into the communities of color, and we start with exposure," Brock said. "Then we provide free resources through ground school curriculum and making it available for free."
"Makes sense for us to reach into underrepresented areas and try to stoke interest in careers in the aviation industry," Rep. Johnson told FOX 5.
Brock said none of this is easy.
"It is equivalent to what a doctor spends on their education for a pilot to obtain their Airline Transport Pilot license, so we are talking 100K," he admitted.
(Supplied)
But every time he takes off and lands again, Brock knows this is something more people should experience.
"It’s a realization I can do what I love and get paid for what I love, and I can inspire others to do the same and fall in love with this career field," he said.