A former captain and pilot of the Guyana Defence Force is now flying for the US airline, JetBlue.
A media release issued on Thursday announced that Guyanese Haslyn Peters was part of the crew of JetBlue flight #1965 with non-stop service from New York’s JFK to George-town which landed at the CJIA that night. It added that Peters was in the flight deck as First Officer (co-pilot) and this was his first flight home as part of the crew on a major carrier.
According to the release, Peters grew up in Princes Street, Lodge, Georgetown and had always dreamed of becoming a pilot, earning him the nickname ‘Pilot’. He attended Dolphin Government School and then the Bishops’ High School.
Although passionate about airplanes and flying, he only got the opportunity to go on an aircraft for
the first time in 1995 when his sister, Allison Peters, who was a flight attendant with the now defunct national
carrier, Guyana Airways, asked one of the domestic pilots, Captain Astell Paul to take him on a flight.
Captain Paul took him on one of his trips to Kamarang and gave him the following advice, “Make sure this is what you want to do because it is not as glamorous as people say it is – it is hard work.”
After completing high school, Peters worked at the National Bank of Industry and Commerce (now Republic Bank Guyana), to start saving for flight school. With financial assistance from his parents he went to Trinidad in 1996 where he acquired his Private Pilot Licence from Briko Air Services Ltd. Upon his return to Guyana, he joined the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and attended its Standard Officer Cadet Course #30 in May 1997. He passed out as the Best Graduating Student in April 1998.
As an officer with the GDF, Lieutenant Peters was chosen to raise the Golden Arrowhead on Mount Ayanganna for three consecutive years, 1998 to 2000. In 2001, he gained a Government of Guyana scholarship from the GDF to attend the Sunrise Aviation Flight School in Ormond Beach, Florida, and was promoted to the rank of Captain upon his return to Guyana where he began flying as a military pilot.
Captain Peters had the opportunity to be mentored by some of Guyana’s top aviators, such as Captain Lloyd
Marshall, Captain Egbert Field, Captain Patrick Nichols, Captain Russell Edun, and Captain Aziz Nizamuddin.
He continued as a pilot with the GDF until his migration to the USA in 2009 where he resides with his wife Shelley Lewis-Peters and their two daughters Judeyah and Jaliyah.
Once in the USA, Peters flew the EMB-145 and CRJ 700/900 for Delta Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines. He was captain on the CRJ-900 for an American regional airline prior to joining JetBlue in November 2022 as First Officer on the Airbus 320/321.
The release noted that Peters continues to rely on mentorship and career guidance from Marshall who still plays an integral role in his life. The release quoted him as saying that he was honoured to be able to follow in the footsteps of his mentors by serving the people of Guyana in his current capacity with Jet Blue.
