The Brief
- Approximately 40 fifth-grade students from San Lorenzo and Hayward visited the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport for a hands-on aviation career tour.
- Hosted by Southwest Airlines’ “Adopt a Pilot” program, this educational excursion marked the first time the program has hosted an airport tour since the pandemic.
- The field trip offered students a behind-the-scenes look at aviation operations, including airplane cockpit tours, airport fire station visits, and safety demonstrations.
OAKLAND, Calif. – A group of East Bay fifth graders took a special field trip to the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport to experience a hands-on, educational tour of the diverse career opportunities available in the aviation industry.
The backstory:
The event was made possible through Southwest Airlines’ “Adopt a Pilot” program, an initiative dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), geography, and goal planning to classrooms nationwide. While the educational program originally launched in 1997, this specific group of students was the very first to participate in an in-person airport tour since the pandemic.
Kids play pilot by sitting in the flight deck
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