My Response to Issue of Merit as Referred to in ‘DEI’ Letter

Dear Editor,
This is my response to the issue of merit as referred to in the "DEI ..." December 25, 2024, Letter to the Forum. The statement: "Now if I see a female pilot, I wonder - is she there primarily based on merit - or because she is female?"
Perhaps the author of the above quote can imagine such a situation, distrusting any airlines that would hire a woman pilot. I can not.
No airline would remotely consider, not to mention allow, any person that does not meet or exceed their numerous and strict qualifications for piloting their multi-million dollar aircrafts to ferry millions of passengers. One may want to think otherwise, but why? It doesn't seem logical, reasonable or rational that an airline management would subject their company, their employees, their stock holders, their paying passengers to the risk of an unqualified person operating their aircraft.
I dare say that any pilot, male or female, hired by an airline, merits their trust and the trust of the passengers. Perhaps some concerns regarding the lack of merit are unwarranted.

–Jack Aydelott, Castro Valley