Edith is a mixed origins woman, rich in culture being French-Senegalese by her Father and Ivorian-German by her Mother. The fact that she grew up and lived in Abidjan most of her life determines a big part of her personality. She is Ivorian above all!
Her passion for aviation comes from her early childhood. She had been exposed from a very young age to this extraordinary world of aviation, surrounded by airline pilots including her father and uncles. Like Obelix, she fell into the pot when she was very little in spite of herself! However, it wasn’t until she started college that she really decided to become an airline pilot. This followed, the premature death of her father, a former Captain at the multinational Air Afrqiue.
After obtaining her scientific baccalaureate at the French high school Blaise Pascal, she entered the aviation school, Aeronautical Institute in Amaury de Lagrange in France. After that, she immediately wanted to go back home to Ivory Coast. They were not hiring at the time, so she started working at Air Ivoire in different departments as a support officer, such as Human Factors and Flight Engineering. A year later, she went for her A320 type rating in the Air France training center and started flying as an airline pilot. Unfortunately, the Company did not survive the crisis the country was going through and filed for bankruptcy. Fortunately, Senegal Airlines hired her immediately. It was an opportunity for her to strengthen ties with her country of the Teranga. In search of new horizons, she finally decided to settle in the Middle East where she has lived for 7 years and has had the opportunity to fly the Airbus A330 and her favourite Airbus, the A340-600 that used to be the longest aircraft until it got dethroned by the B747-800.
She is an explosive Molotov cocktail, which intrinsically pushes her continuously to open her mind to new culture, being more and more tolerant while hating the routine. And that is what she loves about Aviation. It gave her the opportunity to work with diverse people, to travel around the world and of course, her Germanic side has some affection for the technique and precision coming along with it.
When she started her career, they were only two women pilot in the airlines, and her colleague is now like an eldest sister to her. However, she remembers at that time feeling isolated with no one else to discuss about particularities related to their nature and profession. That’s why when she discovered the 99s only recently, she immediately joined resulting to be able to be part of a big sisters’ family, and instantly regret not to have known sooner!
She was the youngest Ivoirian and Senegalese female pilot, which always made her want to inspire and foster vocations among young people, and more particularly young African women. The 99s platform gives her the leverage to develop a mentoring program, and contribute to reach her goal. She is now committed to her new family and sincerely hopes to get the chance to invest herself more.
- Commercial pilot
- Youngest Airline female pilot In Ivory Coast and Senegal
- First female pilot in Senegal to fly airlines
- First female pilot in Ivory Coast to fly airlines
- Edith received the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership Award in Transport July 2018 MATAO African West African Transport Market5th edition of the West African Transport Grand Prix: Promote excellence in all transport sub-sectors in order to create healthy competition within the operator community, improve the quality of services and make the sector modern and efficient. The award was presented by the The Honourable Minister of Transportation Mr Amadou Koné.
- She was a recipient of the Ivory Coast National Excellence Award in the field of Air Transport in August 2019. 7th Edition: Established in 2013, the award of excellence allows the Government to reward the best citizens for their hard work and for their exemplary nature. The award was presented by Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly.
- Edith has featured in the following podcast (Les Ivoiriens Edith Mala Diop et Laurent Dona Fologo)
- Edith features in Ayana Webzine ([Interview]Edith M. Diop, pilote d’avions de ligne)
- In March 2022, she was elevated to the rank of Knight of the National Order for her contribution to aviation and her manifestation of female leadership