These Black identical twins have made history becoming first officer pilots for Alaska Airlines

Identical twins Alan and Alex have made history—Alaska Airlines shared on July 25 that they hired both brothers as first officer pilots. The brothers are both aviation enthusiasts, and have been since they were young children. When they were only 3 years old, they would go plane spotting with their dad every Sunday after church. In addition to this, the twins would accompany their mother on her business trips. During these trips, they were usually bored with everything except the flights. When they moved to California from their home country, Kenya, at the age of 13, they took their love of airplanes with them. Now, they are overjoyed to be part of the same flight crew together, Alaska Airlines shares in a blog post.

Alan remembers their mother buying them Microsoft Flight Simulator as teenagers so she could support their passion for aviation. He stated, "After I started playing with the program, that was it. I knew I wanted to do that [fly] for a job." In the years that followed, he did everything he could to make his dream a reality. For Alan, Alaska Airlines was his first choice. He explained, "When I was working as a fueler, Alaska employees—whether it was pilots or people working across the operation—were always the nicest people who reached out to encourage me."

Alex agreed with him. He affirmed, "Alaska is like a family—you are not a number." He particularly mentioned how much he appreciated fellow employees like Captain Rich, the Anchorage base chief pilot who remembered him and encouraged him through the interview process. Due to how complex flight routing is, it may not be possible for the twin brothers to share a flight deck, but that is their ultimate goal. "We have never flown together professionally because we have always been on different aircraft," Alex said. "The goal is to have one of us upgrade to captain and be operating the same aircraft so we can fly together."

When they do have the opportunity to fly together, there is one special person they would love to have on board: of course, their mother. Alex reiterated, "We have to get her on one of our flights." According to the identical twins, she was instrumental in making their dreams of becoming pilots come true. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that they would want to have her on board. Alaska Airlines announced the special news in a tweet. The carrier wrote, "We’re feeling twinspired! Alex and Alan are identically gifted first officers. Find out how Alaska’s FIRST set of twin pilots are following their dreams to fly together!" To read their blog post about Alex and Alan, you can visit their website here.