For Kerrigan Batsa, the road to becoming one of the top\nyoung aviation mechanics in the U.S. began in an unusual place: seated behind\nthe guest services desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was working in customer service for Spirit Airlines at\nArnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, PA, when I fell in love with\naviation,\u201d Batsa says. Her budding interest inspired her to research options\nfor entering the aircraft maintenance field, where she discovered Pittsburgh\nInstitute of Aeronautics\u2019 (PIA) Aviation Maintenance Technology program. \u201cMy\ncoworkers at the airport had all attended PIA, and they had nothing but good\nthings to say about the school and their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Batsa continued to work as an operations agent and\nstation lead for Spirit while she earned her A&P license from PIA\u2019s Myrtle\nBeach campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Batsa enjoyed PIA\u2019s hands-on education \u2014 especially\nlearning how to work with sheet metal \u2014 she says her most important lesson was\nthe value of working well in a team, which is so crucial to success in the\nfield. Upon graduating from PIA in January of 2020, Batsa was hired as an\naircraft maintenance technician for PSA Airlines in Charlotte, NC. In this\nrole, Batsa works the line during the day where she responds to maintenance\ncalls for outgoing flights, and she also performs overnight maintenance on\nplanes at rest in the hangar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery day is different,\u201d says Batsa. \u201cYou never know\nwhat you could be fixing next.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In October of 2020, Batsa was honored as one of the\nrecipients of Aircraft Maintenance Technology Magazine\u2019s 2020 Next Gen Aircraft\nMaintenance Professionals 40 Under 40 Awards. The awards recognize outstanding\nyoung aviation maintenance professionals who are making a difference in the\nfield. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Batsa is proud to be a role model for other young women\nwho are considering a career in aviation maintenance. Her decision to switch\ncareer paths offers a reminder that it\u2019s never too late to follow your dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you have common sense, you can do this job,\u201d Batsa\nencourages. \u201cDon\u2019t hesitate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Kerrigan Batsa, the road to becoming one of the top young aviation mechanics in the U.S. began in an unusual place: seated behind the guest services desk. \u201cI was working in customer service for Spirit Airlines at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, PA, when I fell in love with aviation,\u201d Batsa says. Her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kerigan-Batsaedit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17381,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17379\/revisions\/17381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}