[connatix_element_embed script_id=44d4464a58f3481284158ce9baca4678 player_id=7bc491b4-922b-4e8d-b1b1-150648e80442 video_id=cc307e5a-fe84-476d-8343-8f0353122dcb align=right]

Saturday marks “Girls in Aviation Day,” a national initiative aimed at increasing the number of women in all areas of the aviation industry. Students from Northeast D.C. celebrated the occasion early by getting a close-up look at the ins and outs of flying at Dulles International Airport.

Phelps High School took a behind-the-scenes tour of the airport on Thursday.

“When I grew up, I thought aviation only meant being a pilot,” said Joy Cooper, a manager with United Airlines at Dulles.

Cooper was one of the experts who led the tour.

“The goal is to see everything that goes into aviation, including behind-the-scenes maintenance and things like that,” Cooper said.

Dejah Austin, a sophomore, said she was there to explore possible career options in the future.

“I am focusing mainly on the IT field, and I was wondering if they have any IT-related jobs here,” Austin said.

Austin said she was also curious about the airport operation as a whole.

“I’m really interested in what they do,” Austin said. “I’m wondering how stressful it could be, and how they’re able to command so many planes.”

The students toured the entire airport, visiting a maintenance hangar, meeting pilots and flight attendants, and touring planes to see what it takes to prepare them for arrival and departure.

One of the behind-the-scenes employees they saw was Shavon Phinizy with United Airlines. Her job is to make sure plane mechanics have all the tools they need.

“I think it’s just important for everyone to see what it takes to overall structurally get to your trip,” Phinizy said. “Often everyone just thinks about flight attendants and pilots, but they don’t look below the wing to the other parts of the operation.”

Girls in Aviation Day was first established in 1994 by the nonprofit group, Women in Aviation International.