Yvonne Sintes

Yvonne Pope Sintes (8 September 1930 – 16 August 2021) was a South African-born British aviator. She was the first female air traffic controller at Gatwick airport and later became Britain's first female commercial airline captain.

Early life Sintes was born Yvonne Elizabeth van den Hoek on 8 September 1930 in Pretoria, South Africa, the eldest of three daughters of Iris (née Kyle) and Marcel van den Hoek. The family had English, Scottish, American, Dutch and Huguenot ancestry, and the children were raised "with an abiding love of music."

The family moved to Britain in 1936 when her father was appointed overseas manager of the South African Citrus Exchange. They settled near Croydon, in south London from where her father often flew to Europe on business from Croydon Airport, the place which first inspired her with a wish to fly. As a school girl Yvonne devoured the Biggles books, later writing "Captain WE Johns will never know what he achieved, though he did impair my knowledge of geometry, as his most recently acquired book was often read under my desk lid". member of the RAF Volunteer Reserve, flight instructor, air traffic controller, and pilot.

In 1953, Sintes was licensed as a private pilot and worked to build enough hours in the air to earn her assistant instructor rating at Denham. She joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve Her first flight as a commercial pilot was on 16 January 1965, flying a Dakota to Düsseldorf, and within six months these freight flights were interspersed with piloting passenger services.

Joining Dan-Air in 1969, she flew De Havilland Comets, the first commercial jet airliner. In 1971, her unusual status as a "lady jet pilot" was featured in an episode of Nationwide, a BBC news and current affairs programme, which interviewed the passengers she was flying to Tenerife.

Yvonne Pope Sintes flew as a pilot for UK-based airline Dan-Air until her retirement in 1980.

Personal life In 1953, two days before Yvonne van den Hoek married Eric Pope, the couple were flying a Tiger Moth when the fuel gauge suddenly plummeted towards empty. Flying to the west of London, the only possible site to set down was Windsor Great Park, where the problem turned out to be the aircraft's faulty fuel gauge. Pope had been her instructor at the Airways Aero Club. The couple had two sons,

Awards Jean Lennox Bird Pendant from the British Women Pilots' Association in 2014. Brabazon Cup from the British Women Pilots' Association