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With her kid, the first Tongan woman to fly a commercial aircraft makes history once more.

 With her kid, the first Tongan woman to fly a commercial aircraft makes history once more.

With her daughter Maria by her side, Capt. Kamelia Zarka made another Hawaiian Airlines first.


The mother-daughter team shared a flight deck in the Pacific on August 31. Honolulu Airlines

Kamelia Zarka never imagined she would one day be breaking barriers as a Tongan woman and mother when she began working as a flight attendant for Hawaiian Airlines in 1992.

Zarka obtained her private pilot's license shortly after starting her job with the airline. Later, she took a leave of absence from her position as a flight attendant to pursue the extra certifications required to fly commercial aircraft.

She received a call from Hawaiian Airlines to work for the firm as a pilot on the day of her 38th birthday, seven years into her pilot training. In 1999, she became the first Tongan woman to captain a commercial airliner.

"Women currently make up roughly 8% of pilots in the industry, compared to 4% when I was hired."

In a news release earlier this year, 61-year-old Zarka stated that "when I was employed, women made up four percent of pilots in the business; now it's approximately eight percent industrywide, and even higher at Hawaiian."

Zarka, though, wasn't done dismantling walls. The mother of two was joined in the cockpit on August 31 by First Officer Maria Zarka, her eldest child.



The mother-daughter team shared the cockpit while flying a Boeing 717 between adjacent islands.

Sharing the cockpit with my daughter, Maria, was an incredible gift to me, Zarka told TODAY Parents, adding that she will always cherish the memories of the day. Maria has always been intelligent and professional, so I thought she would make a great pilot, but watching her fly the plane with such ease and ability next to me still astounded me.