Kenyan identical twins make history at Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines now has its first set of identical twin pilots, Alan and Alex. According to the Los Angeles airline, Alan recently finished simulator training and will be based in San Francisco while his brother Alex flies out of Los Angeles. 

The twins were born in Kenya but moved with their family to California when they were just 13 years old. Since age three, they have been amused by planes. Every Sunday after church, the brothers went plane spotting with their father. Their mom also took them along on her business trips and they never hid their joy about flights.

Their mom even bought them Microsoft Flight Simulator to encourage their dreams. “After I started playing with the program, that was it. I knew I wanted to do that [fly] for a job,” Alan told Alaska Airlines.

The airline was Alan’s first choice when he started thinking of shifting from the regional airlines. He was inspired by the fact that he would be working with his brother. What’s more, he loved the working environment at the airline.

“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,” said Alan.

Alaska said it is uncommon for pilots who are family members to be able to fly with each other at the company, however, that’s the goal of the brothers. And when they are able to achieve that goal, they would like to have their mother there with them.

“We’ve never flown together professionally because we’ve always been on different aircraft,” first officer Alex said. “The goal is to have one of us upgrade to captain and be operating the same aircraft so we can fly together.”