Growing up in a small village in Tonga, Silva MacLeod often stared at the clouds as planes passed overhead, but she never dreamed she’d fly one.
Born on the island of Vava’u, Silva’s future was all but decided. She believed she would grow up, get married, and have babies, just like any other woman on the island.
“When you’re an island kid, flying is an illusion. If I ever said I wanted to fly, I’d be the laughingstock of the village,” she told 9Honey. .
“But when a plane flew over our village, I would always go out and chase it, stand there and watch until it disappeared over the horizon.”
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For a Tongan girl like her, becoming a pilot was not an option. Silva thought so until she unexpectedly fell in love with an Australian who she was helping build a hospital on the island.
Ken is an electrician, and despite their different backgrounds, he and Silva were attracted to each other and began courting, although Silva’s family was initially opposed.
Falling in love with a white man wasn’t part of Silva’s plans, but Ken was supportive when she confessed her fantasy of going crazy and one day flying a plane.
“He said, ‘Well, you can do that. There’s nothing stopping you,’” she recalls.
It may have been his belief in her that made Silva brave enough to marry Ken in 1980, leaving his island life behind to move to Melbourne and start a family.
They welcomed two daughters, and for years Silva devoted herself to raising them, paying the mortgage, sending them to school, and putting food on the table.
She worked as a supermarket “checkout chick” to make ends meet. Her dream of flying was not a priority for her.
“It’s almost irresponsible as a mother to even fantasize about doing something like that,” she says. Silva didn’t think twice about it until tragedy struck.
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In 1990, Ken was diagnosed with a rare cancer of plasma in the bone marrow. Doctors said he had about five years to live, but Ken was determined to fight it.
When he was hospitalized for a lengthy treatment, Silva kissed him goodbye and he asked, “Do you still want to fly?”
“When he said that, I had a little butterfly in my belly, which I immediately squashed,” says Silva.
“I really thought he was paranoid on all drugs, chemotherapy.”
But Ken is serious, and after six months of treatment with her support, he surprises her with a coupon worth $20 for her first flight on her birthday.
Silva loved every moment of it and by the time we landed, we were completely hooked.
“I came out with my textbooks, my headset, everything. Ken looked at me and said, ‘What have I done? I created a monster.’
Silva knew that becoming a pilot is not easy. She was a woman entering a male-dominated field, both a mother and a woman of color.
Over the years, she has endured sexism, rude comments, and discrimination, juggling motherhood, day job, family life, and training while making her dreams come true.
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“When you really want to do something, you only see the challenges later. Looking back, I don’t know how I did it,” she admits.
It took six years and tens of thousands of dollars, but Silva eventually earned her air transport pilot’s license, becoming the first Tongan woman to qualify as a pilot.
Then, in 1998, the long-awaited phone call came.
“This is Royal Tonga Airlines…here is your position,” she said over the phone.
Silva, who was soon seated on the flight deck of Royal Tonga Airlines, made the captain’s announcement in his native language Tongan a moment he will never forget.
“It was hard to find that job,” she says, but it came at a price. The job required her to spend a lot of time away from her husband and children in Melbourne.
“Even though I was already a mother, my employer did not look favorably on my situation because the child always comes first…This is very unfair because if I am a man If you leave your family behind, no one will turn a blind eye.
Luckily, Ken supported her dreams and stayed home with the girls, but Silva continued to thrive, later flying with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and becoming Virgin’s international vice president. became a pilot.
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“Island Girl” fulfilled her dream and continued flying for 30 years, but Ken’s health began to deteriorate after the cancer returned.
He passed away peacefully at his home on June 18, 2020. That same year, Silva lost his flight job due to his COVID-19 pandemic. Silva put her grief into writing.
“When I first put pen to paper, it was after Ken’s funeral, so I poured out my grief to pay homage to him,” she says.
“I wanted the whole world to know that he was ‘the wind under my wings.’ He gave me.”
Before he died, Ken encouraged Silva to share her story in the form of a memoir someday.
It took another 12 months to edit her story, put it together and pitch it to a publisher, and eventually From Island Girl to Airline Pilot Featured in Exsile Publishing.
The memoir helped her process her grief, and Silva knew Ken would be “very proud and happy.”
“Without Ken, I wouldn’t have a story to tell. Being sad about my laptop and being able to travel with me was a huge help to me,” she says.
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Although she hasn’t returned to flying since the pandemic, Silva is filled with “gratitude” knowing her book can inspire other young women to fly like her.
“If my story reaches a young girl, boy, Indigenous child, or anyone with that background, if I can inspire them by sharing my little story, I am more than happy to help.” You cannot be happy.
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