Beverley Bass

Beverley Bass was born in Fort Myers, Florida in 1952 making her a 4th generation Floridian. She left in 1970 to attend Texas Christian University and it was in Fort Worth where she did the majority of her flying prior to being hired as American Airlines' third female pilot in 1976.

In 1986 she became the first female pilot to Captain an American Airlines jet and only a short time later was in command of the first all female crew for AA on a B-727.

Certainly the pivotal point in her nearly 32 year career was on 9.11 when she was piloting a B-777 from Paris to Dallas. She was westbound over the North Atlantic when she and her crew learned of the terrorist's attacks and the closure of U.S. airspace. She landed in the tiny community of Gander, NL along with 37 other jumbo jets in a 3 hour time frame and stayed for 5 days.

One of the most successful musicals ever written is currently playing all over the world including Broadway which tells the beautiful story about the folks in Gander. Beverley is the pilot who is portrayed in the show.