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Meet Alex and Alan who made history, as the first set of identical twins working as pilots at Alaska Airlines.
According to a 2024 article by Forbes, Alaska Airlines was ranked the best airline in the U.S. by a new study by WalletHub.
Alex has been working as a first officer based at Los Angeles airport while Alan joined as a first officer and was stationed in San Francisco.
The duo was born in Kenya and moved with their family to California when they were just 13 years old.
However, their amusement with planes started when they were 3 years old and often interacted with them during the course of their parents’ travels.
Their mother supported their love for planes by gifting them a Microsoft Flight Simulator program.
“After I started playing with the program, that was it. I knew I wanted to do that [fly] for a job,” Alan said in an interview with the airline.
He is pleased to join his brother at Alaska airlines following the completion of his flight simulator training, after working for a regional airline.
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“When I was working as a fueler, Alaska employees – whether it was pilots or people working across the operation – were always the nicest people who reached out to encourage me,” said Alan.
It's uncommon for family members of pilots to be allowed to fly together due to the intricacy of the airline’s operation but the brothers plan to make their dreams come true.
“We’ve never flown together professionally because we’ve always been on different aircraft. The goal is to have one of us upgrade to captain and be operating the same aircraft so we can fly together,” Alex stated.
To show appreciation to their mother, the duo said that they intend to fly her when they finally get paired together for their first flight.