Meet Krista!

Q: What is your name, where are you from?
A: My name is Krista Saint Dic and I was born on the island of Haiti. When I was 15 we moved to Miami, and then spent about 20 years in New York City.

Q: What are three interesting things about you that no one would guess?
A: Some interesting things about me: I am a professional dancer. I do ballet, Jazz, Hip-hop, jive and African, just about everything except for tap dancing. I speak four languages, including French, Creole, English and Spanish, English being my third language. Finally, I used to produce films!

Q: What were you doing before you came to LIFT?
A: Before I came to LIFT, I was a flight attendant and for Republic Airways. Before that I was a filmmaker, and produced, edited and casting directed movies.

Q: What do you think helped prep you best for LIFT?
A: What prepped me best for LIFT was that I was already in the aviation industry as a flight attendant. So I kind of knew what to expect from the lifestyle and I know what to look forward to once I get back on the mainline flying!

Q: What did your journey to aviation look like?
A: When I was a kid, my brother and I would get so excited whenever we saw a plane in the sky. I was probably about 5 years old and I remember that we would just scream and point out to the airplane. I always wanted to be a flight attendant because I truly love the experience of flying. I mean packing your suitcase at home, going to the airport, getting through the chaos at the airport, boarding the plane, eating the food in the plane and landing, really every part of it. I’ve loved the whole experience of flying but somewhere along the line I kind of stopped thinking about flying until maybe about 3 years ago or maybe a little bit like maybe like 3-4 years ago. My sister actually put the idea back into my head saying, “Why don’t you apply for flight attendant positions” and then the whole dream came back to me and that was how my love of aviation restarted again.

Q: What do you remember about your first week/day at LIFT?
A: My first day at LIFT was pretty laid-back. I was happy to meet my classmates and everyone else who works at LIFT. There was another student in my class who was also a flight attendant so we bonded instantaneously and I didn’t really fly that much the first week but I felt I felt energized to go and then fly the planes.

Q: What is life like as a student at LIFT?
A: Being a student at LIFT is very fun, but at the same time, it’s what you make it. I’m a very outgoing person so I love meeting everyone. I love asking people where they’re from and what stage they are on. I feel like it’s a very friendly, inviting, family-like environment. There are a lot of group sessions each week that you can attend to and learn with other people from different stages but now because of COVID, I believe that the group sessions are online, so I try to do these sessions with other students, and study more afterward.

Q: Why has LIFT been a good fit for you?
A: LIFT has been an amazing fit for me because I just loved flying. Because I was a flight attendant for the same company that owns LIFT, I already knew the whole culture of Republic Airways and I knew that I wanted an accelerated flight program. I would like to build up my hours and get back to the airline.

Q: Why do you want to be a commercial airline pilot? What are you looking forward to after you become one?
A: I want to be a pilot because I love a challenge and I want to inspire girls from the country where I was born (Haiti) to become pilots as well. I am also looking forward to making my country and my family proud!

Q: How would you describe the LIFT atmosphere?
A: The atmosphere at LIFT is really great. I love the fact that all the students are connected because we all have one goal in common: we are training to fly these planes and become airline pilots. That makes it really really easy to connect with other people at LIFT, we can always discuss aviation together. I also feel like I can always ask pretty much anyone questions if I have questions!

Q: Advice to yourself?
A: The advice that I would give to myself is to stop procrastinating. If you want something go after it. Don’t try to wait for the perfect moment to do it, just do it.

Q: What do you do for fun outside of training?
A: Outside of training, I love to hang out with my roommates, I do yoga, I am part of a dance group and we perform different choreography. Whenever I can I go back to New York to visit my family.