There was a time when the sight of a woman sitting in the captain’s seat of a Nigerian commercial aircraft was unusual enough to attract attention.
Then came Captain Sinmisola Ajibola.
Her journey into aviation began unusually close to home. Her father was a pilot, and several of her brothers would later follow the same career path. As a child, she was fascinated by her father’s pilot uniform and equipment and reportedly told him that she wanted to fly.
Her childhood wish eventually became a profession.
But getting there required much more than growing up in a family of pilots. It required training, experience, discipline and the confidence to operate in a profession where women remained a small minority.
In June 2018, that journey reached a major milestone when Air Peace decorated Ajibola with captain’s epaulettes, making her the airline’s first female captain.
Her achievement would soon become even more visible.
And within a year, she would find herself at the centre of one of the most closely followed aviation incidents in Nigeria.
Aviation Was Already Part of Her Family
For Sinmisola Ajibola, aviation was not an unfamiliar world.
Her father was a pilot, and her brothers also entered the profession. Her exposure to aviation therefore began long before she became a professional pilot.
She has recalled playing with her father’s pilot hats and jackets as a child and expressing her desire to become a pilot.
Her father encouraged her to complete university before making the decision.
She eventually chose aviation.
That family background is an important part of her story because it shows how professional ambitions can begin with childhood exposure. Ajibola did not merely hear about flying. She saw it through someone close to her and grew up with an understanding of the profession that many aspiring pilots encounter only later in life.
Still, a family connection could not give her command of a commercial aircraft.
She had to earn it.
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From First Officer to Captain
Ajibola joined Air Peace and rose through the ranks as a professional pilot.
By 2017, she was serving with the airline as a Senior First Officer.
The following year brought the achievement that would make her name widely known.
On 25 June 2018, Air Peace officially decorated her as a captain.
She became the airline’s first female captain.
The occasion was significant for Air Peace and for the broader visibility of Nigerian women in aviation.
Her promotion also challenged the familiar assumption that the cockpit of a commercial aircraft was naturally a man’s domain.
But Ajibola’s achievement was not simply about gender.
A captain carries responsibility for the safe operation of an aircraft, the crew and everyone on board. Reaching that position means accumulating the necessary experience and demonstrating the competence required for command.
For Ajibola, the captain’s uniform represented the culmination of years of work.
The All Female Flight That Drew Attention
Only days after her promotion, Ajibola took part in another remarkable aviation event.
On 5 July 2018, Air Peace operated an all female crew flight involving Lagos, Abuja and Owerri.
Ajibola was the captain.
Senior First Officer Quincy Owen served alongside her in the cockpit, while other women formed part of the cabin and operational team.
The aircraft received a water salute when it arrived in Abuja.
Air Peace presented the flight as an opportunity to encourage more women to consider careers in aviation and demonstrate the roles women could occupy throughout the industry.
For passengers, however, it was more than a corporate statement.
The people operating their aircraft were women.
The person commanding the Boeing 737 was a woman who had only recently become the airline’s first female captain.
The flight offered a powerful picture of how quickly the traditional image of the commercial cockpit was changing.
The Captain Was Also Dealing With Real World Aviation
Ajibola’s career was not made up of ceremonial flights and photographs.
In January 2019, she was involved in an incident that showed the very different responsibilities faced by airline crews.
During an Air Peace flight from Port Harcourt to Lagos, the crew became concerned about a passenger travelling with a newborn baby.
The circumstances surrounding the child raised suspicion, and the matter was referred to the authorities.
The incident eventually became a case involving an alleged attempt to traffic a newborn baby.
Ajibola was the captain of the flight.
The episode demonstrated another reality of commercial aviation. Pilots and cabin crew are responsible not only for getting passengers from one airport to another, but also for responding to unusual situations that emerge during a flight.
Then, six months later, Ajibola faced a far more serious aviation emergency.
The Landing That Put Her in the Headlines
On 23 July 2019, an Air Peace Boeing 737 was approaching Lagos after a flight from Port Harcourt.
The aircraft, registered 5N BQO, was carrying 133 passengers and six crew members.
The weather around Lagos was difficult.
Rain was falling, and the runway was wet.
The aircraft was cleared to land on Runway 18R, with the crew warned about the wet runway.
During the final approach, the aircraft encountered problems with its alignment.
Captain Ajibola noticed that the aircraft was not properly aligned with the runway centreline and took control.
The aircraft subsequently touched down heavily.
The nose landing gear failed.
The aircraft continued along the runway before eventually coming to a stop.
The passengers and crew survived the accident.
There were no fatalities.
The aircraft, however, sustained substantial damage.
The incident immediately attracted national attention, and Ajibola’s name became associated with the dramatic landing.
What Happened on the Runway
The accident became the subject of an investigation by Nigeria’s aviation accident investigation authorities.
The aircraft had been approaching Lagos in rainy conditions, with the runway reported to be wet.
During the approach, visibility was affected by the intensity of the rain.
The aircraft was not properly aligned with the runway centreline during the final stage of the approach.
Captain Ajibola took control.
The aircraft subsequently landed with the right main wheels making contact with the runway, followed by the nose wheel.
A grinding sound was heard as the nose landing gear failed.
The aircraft continued moving along the runway until it came to a stop.
The nose wheels separated from the nose gear assembly, and components of the damaged landing gear were found along the runway.
Despite the seriousness of the incident, the aircraft’s occupants survived.
The passengers were evacuated after the aircraft came to a stop.
For the people inside the aircraft, what had begun as an ordinary journey from Port Harcourt had become a frightening experience on the Lagos runway.
For Ajibola, it became one of the defining moments of her public career.
The Woman Behind the Captain’s Uniform
It is easy to remember Ajibola only through the dramatic photographs of an aircraft with its damaged nose gear.
But her story began much earlier.
Before the captain’s uniform, before the all female flight and before the 2019 incident, there was a young girl fascinated by aviation because she had seen it up close.
Her family environment gave her an unusual introduction to flying.
Her father was already a pilot.
Her brothers also entered aviation.
She had therefore grown up seeing aviation as a profession that could belong to her.
That early exposure mattered.
Careers are often shaped by what young people believe is possible. A child who regularly sees pilots, doctors, engineers, teachers or scientists in her environment may find it easier to imagine herself becoming one.
Ajibola eventually moved from imagining herself in the cockpit to actually commanding a commercial aircraft.
A Different Kind of First
Ajibola is sometimes described in popular accounts as Nigeria’s first female pilot or Nigeria’s first female captain.
Those descriptions do not accurately capture her achievement.
Women had already entered Nigerian aviation before her.
Her distinction was that she became Air Peace’s first female captain.
That is significant in its own right.
The difference matters because the history of Nigerian women in aviation did not begin with Ajibola.
Women had already been flying professionally, working in aviation operations and taking on technical responsibilities.
Ajibola became part of that longer history and helped bring it into greater public view.
Her achievement therefore belongs to a wider story about women gradually occupying professional spaces that had traditionally been associated with men.
The Family of Pilots
One of the most unusual aspects of Ajibola’s story remains her family.
Her father was a pilot.
Several of her brothers became pilots.
She followed them.
It created an extraordinary aviation connection within one Nigerian family.
For Ajibola, the cockpit was therefore both a workplace and something she had imagined from childhood.
Yet her story also demonstrates the importance of opportunity.
Aviation training is demanding and expensive. Becoming a commercial pilot requires specialised instruction, examinations, flight hours and continuing professional development.
Being inspired by a pilot is one thing.
Becoming one is another.
Ajibola managed to make the transition from inspiration to profession and eventually to command.
Why Her Story Still Matters
The significance of Captain Sinmisola Ajibola extends beyond the title of Air Peace’s first female captain.
Her career offered young Nigerian women a visible example of a woman occupying one of the most demanding positions in commercial aviation.
When Air Peace placed her in command of an all female flight in 2018, the message was particularly clear.
A woman could sit in the captain’s seat.
A woman could command a commercial aircraft.
A woman could build a career in an industry where women had historically been underrepresented.
And when difficult situations arose, she was expected to perform the same professional responsibilities demanded of any captain.
That is perhaps the most important part of her story.
Her gender made her achievement historically notable.
Her training and professional competence made it possible.
From a Childhood Dream to the Captain’s Seat
Captain Sinmisola Ajibola’s story began with something deceptively simple.
A little girl saw her father’s pilot uniform and imagined herself flying.
Years later, she entered the profession.
She became a Senior First Officer.
She earned her promotion to captain.
She became Air Peace’s first female captain.
She commanded an all female flight.
She became involved in unusual incidents that required professional judgement.
Then, in July 2019, she found herself at the centre of a serious landing accident at Lagos.
Through all these stages, the central thread remained the same.
She had entered a profession that demands precision, discipline and responsibility, and she had risen to a position where other people’s lives depended on her ability to do the job.
Her story is therefore not simply about a woman who broke into a male dominated profession.
It is about what happens when a childhood possibility becomes a professional reality.
For the young girl who once played with her father’s pilot clothes, the sky was never merely something to look at.
It became a place she was determined to reach.
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Author’s Note
Captain Sinmisola Ajibola’s journey from growing up in a family of pilots to becoming Air Peace’s first female captain captures an important chapter in the history of Nigerian aviation. Her career showed that women could rise to command commercial aircraft, while her involvement in major flights and the 2019 Lagos landing placed her professionalism under the public spotlight. Her lasting significance lies not only in being a pioneer at Air Peace, but in becoming a visible example of how a childhood ambition, professional training and determination can eventually place a Nigerian woman in the captain’s seat.
References
Accident Investigation Bureau Nigeria, reports and investigation materials concerning the Air Peace Boeing 737 accident involving aircraft 5N BQO on 23 July 2019.
Air Peace, corporate statements and historical materials concerning Captain Sinmisola Ajibola’s promotion and the airline’s all female flight operations in 2018.
BusinessDay, reports on the appointment of Sinmisola Ajibola as Air Peace’s first female captain, June 2018.
The Guardian Nigeria, reports on Captain Sinmisola Ajibola, Air Peace and women in Nigerian aviation.
Punch Newspapers, reports on Air Peace’s female pilots and the 23 July 2019 aircraft accident in Lagos.
Vanguard, reports concerning Air Peace’s all female crew operations and Captain Sinmisola Ajibola.
The Nation, reports concerning Air Peace’s all female flight and subsequent aviation incidents involving its crew.
NigerianFLIGHTDECK, contemporary aviation reports concerning Captain Sinmisola Ajibola and Air Peace.
