“I realized that if I could fly the plane with my own feet, then I am Pilot In Command of my whole life.”
—Jessica Cox
Since before the Wright Brothers fashioned bicycle parts into airplanes, before Da Vinci sketched mechanical wings strapped to a man’s back, and even before Icarus flew too close to the sun, man has dreamed of flying. But the old mantra, “If man were meant to fly, God would have given him wings” has not been easy to overcome. To take his place among the creatures of the air, earthbound man has been forced to innovate, take risks, think outside the box.
Or, in Jessica Cox’s case, think outside the shoe.
Mother Nature may have chosen not to give Jessica arms, but that has not kept this pilot—nor her spirit—from soaring. By her own bootstraps, she has pulled herself off her feet and into the sky. Last year, she was even named one of the Top 10 Best Pilots by Plane & Pilot magazine.
Jessica Cox has every right to be angry. Mother Nature cheated her. Childhood peers ridiculed her. Society shunned her. If she had been born in a 3rd world country, she could have been shunned as cursed or thrown away as trash. She has earned the right to say, “Screw you, world, you owe me!”
But she has wasted no time playing the victim, wallowing in self-pity. She has accepted, embraced, overcome, and mastered her disability. And “disability” isn’t even the right word, for she is far more capable than many. By discovering her own seemingly limitless potential, she now reaches out to others like her, to teach them that disability is only skin deep; true ability lies within. In so doing, she has challenged an apathetic world to accept her, and others like her, as she is. Indeed, she has helped introduce a bill to the United Nations entitled, “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”
During an inflight emergency, flight attendants seek out ABP’s—Able-Bodied Persons. Well, Jessica Cox is one of the most ABP’s I’ve ever met. I would not hesitate to call on her in an emergency. Hell, this grizzled captain would feel honored to step aside to the copilot’s seat and defer the flying to Captain Jessica Cox.
Lord knows she can handle it.
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!”
—Audrey Hepburn (as quoted by Jessica Cox)
To learn more about Jessica, check out her website, watch her YouTube channel, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter. To learn more about the rights of disabled people, check out the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Eric “Cap’n Aux” Auxier is an airline pilot by day, writer by night, and kid by choice. An A320 Captain for a major U.S. airline, he is also a freelance writer, novelist and blogger (capnaux.com). His second novel, The Last Bush Pilots, captured the coveted Amazon TOP 100 Breakthrough Novels in 2013. His new book, “There I Wuz! Adventures From 3 Decades in the Sky” will be available on Amazon Kindle in June and in print in July. Mr. Auxier makes his home in Phoenix, Arizona.
