Two days ago, Captain Saadeddine Dabbous who was the first Lebanese pilot and eventually the first Lebanese ever to fly a Middle East Airlines plane in 1952 passed away at 92 years old leaving behind two proud generations of airline pilots.
Captain Dabbous served Lebanon’s national carrier for around 40 years and his story of becoming a captain is rather interesting since he originally started as an accountant with MEA in 1947. However, two years after that the company aimed to hire Lebanese pilots which motivated Dabbous to sign up for one of the training programs.
Four years later, following the training he attended abroad and after logging 5,000 flight hours as a co-pilot, he made his first flight as a captain from Cairo to Beirut in 1952 and the event got a lot of media attention back then, and he eventually kept serving in his position until his retirement in 1985 and was also honored by the Lebanese presidency for his career. Later on his two sons grew up to become pilots at the Middle East Airlines, and then two of his grandchildren also followed the same path and currently serve as co-pilots with the same airlines.
May his soul rest in peace.