![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/11\/Sinegl_plaque-497x430.jpg\")
DSU’s Vice President for University Advancement & External Relations Rick Monroe (right) presents alumnus Malik Sinegal with a plaque commemorating his achievement.<\/p><\/div>\n
DSU\u2019s Commercial Aviation program is a premier choice for students who desire a career as a professional pilot and is the state university system\u2019s only undergraduate and graduate aviation programs.<\/p>\n
The commercial aviation department, which attracts students from across the state, nation and world, offers three concentrations\u2014 Flight Operations, Aviation Management, and Logistics.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur commercial aviation students have quite a rigorous and challenging workload. They take anywhere from 18 to 21 academic hours each semester, and on top of that, they also have to be prepared for their flight lesson each day,\u201d explained Joe Saia, interim director of Flight Operations.<\/p>\n
Saia said Sinegal\u2019s achievement is a significant credit to the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commercial aviation department, which started in the early \u201880s, has produced many successful pilots in the industry, and today marks one of our newest accomplished graduates, Mr. Malik Sinegal,\u201d he said. \u201cAchieving this at such a young age is a huge achievement. Malik has raised the bar for our future students.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Sinegal, his interest in aviation developed early on.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy godmother was a flight attendant for Delta, and from the time I was about two-years-old, she would come down almost every weekend from Atlanta and pick me up and let me meet the pilots,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n
In addition to its affordability, Delta State\u2019s close proximity to home appealed to Sinegal. The 2019 DSU graduate said choosing Delta State was a great decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people in the aviation department are some of the most amazing people you\u2019ll ever meet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It was Delta Airline\u2019s longest-serving pilot, Captain Cal Flanigan, who inspired Sinegal to pursue the Boeing 777 certification.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaptain Flanigan was a top pilot at Delta Airlines for several years and never missed a day of work. After I met him, it was something I always wanted to do because the Boeing 777 was the largest airplane in Delta\u2019s fleet at the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After completing the rigorous certification process which included Computer Based Trainings (CBTs) and simulators, Sinegal said he was exhausted but felt a sense of accomplishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very proud that I could finally call myself a Boeing 777 pilot,\u201d said Sinegal, who was initially unaware that he\u2019d made history.<\/p>\n
He hopes his achievement inspires other young pilots and sparks an interest in students who haven\u2019t been exposed to the career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact I hope this will have, especially for young people, is to show them that there\u2019s no age limit on success and that it\u2019s never too early to start giving back,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere I\u2019m from, a lot of kids don\u2019t think they can be a pilot\u2026Some of them have never flown before. It\u2019s all about going there, being present and letting them know that they can do it too.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Boeing 777, the world’s largest and most technologically advanced twin-engine jet, typically appeals to more seasoned pilots. However, Delta State University alumnus Malik Sinegal made history recently when he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":87008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87007"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87014,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87007\/revisions\/87014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}