Young pilot has high-flying hopes for the future

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Young pilot has high-flying hopes for the future

WONJU, Gangwon ― It is nine in the morning on a weekday at the Air Force’s combat plane runway in Wonju and a tiny plane alights gracefully on the runway.
Out steps 14-year old Jeon Yoo-na, an 8th grader at Jecheon Girls’ High School.
Jeon holds a pilot’s license for light aircraft, and is the youngest in Asia to have obtained such a certification.
Wearing her school uniform, the student pilot had taken her favorite plane ― the Bingo 912 ― out for a 30- minute ride.
Jeon decided to become a pilot after her mother passed away in a car accident in July of 2004. Directly after her mother’s death, the girl became depressed, spending most of her time holed up in her room.
Her grades starting dropping at school. At the time, her father, who runs a rental service for heavy machinery, suggested his daughter try flying.
Jeon began training during winter vacation when she was in 5th grade and three years later, she finally passed the national test for lightweight aircraft.
It was just after she turned 14, which is the youngest age one can take the test.
“As I flew through the sky, my personality became brighter and life became happier,” Jeon said.
“When I’m in the plane, I feel like I’m with my mother up in the heavens.”
On this day, Jeon had the honor of meeting captains Park Ji-won and Park Ji-yeon, Korea’s first combat plane pilots. After changing into a pilot’s uniform, she boarded the F-5F combat plane as a passenger for a runway speed test.
Jeon hopes to become a combat plane pilot when she grows up.
“I’m going to take care of my country’s sky and my mother,” she said.


By Kang Ki-hun JoongAng Ilbo [wohn@joongang.co.kr]
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