I want to be a pilot

Víctor Daroqui, Iberia Long-haul Pilot

“When I was small, it was all about medicine. First, I wanted to be a pharmacist like my dad, and then for years I wanted to be a dentist, even though every time I saw blood I had to look away.

In 1998, my parents sent me to Ireland to learn English. I remember perfectly doing my schoolwork in the home of the my host family –the father was an engineer with Aer Lingus. My assignment was to write about what I wanted to be when I grew up. No problem there: dentist it would be! 

In the year 2000, when I was 14, everything changed. Again my parents sent me away to learn more English, this time to England, for the third and last time. But, this one was very special.

I went to my English classes every day with two friends from my school in Spain. One of them had spent the past year talking about becoming a pilot, and he tried to interest me, too. I have to admit the idea was beginning to take hold.

I remember taking off from Valencia and reaching London after having looked out the window the whole time, trying to recognise every location below.

As we boarded the plane for the return London-Valencia flight, the captain was greeting the passengers, and my schoolmate Irene blurted out: “Hello, my friend wants to be a pilot!” So, he invited me into the cockpit. I was speechless. 

When I left that airplane my mind was made up, and I announced my decision to my parents who were waiting for me at the airport. Four years later, my dream began to come true. 

Thanks to that friendly pilot, I became one, too, and I now fly for Iberia.

And guess what? Seventeen years later that same pilot and I coincided at the controls of an Iberia airliner flying halfway around the world, from Madrid to Shanghai.

Who could ever have imagined that?"