Valda Oss-Lamond (1935-1968) - the First Latvian Female Pilot of Civil Aviation in Australia

Inženierzinātņu un augstskolu vēsture 2017
Lāsma Gaitniece

This article tells about the Oss family in Libau, Latvia. At the end of World War II, the Oss family left Latvia for the West and in the 40s of the 20th century emigrated to Australia, where their daughter started her professional career and married taking the name of Lamond. Under the influence of her father who was interested in civil aviation, she became the first Latvian female pilot in Australia. She got her pilot licence in 1956, and for 10 months she was a pilot with the only airline that accepted female pilots. Finally, the airline ceased operating and she had to look for a job with another airline where she had a job on the ground. She was not able to find a job of a pilot. Her child was terminally ill and she was desperate, which led her to suicide. Her parents followed her on this tragic route. The life and death of Valda Oss-Lamond has been researched thanks to her relatives in Latvia, one of them being the author of this article. Until now, her name has been mentioned in publications in Latvian and English, but her full biography has never been published.

Keywords
Valda Oss-Lamond, fugitives in Australia, civil aviation, female airline pilot
DOI
10.7250/IAV.2017.007
Hyperlink
https://iav-journals.rtu.lv/article/view/IAV.2017.007

Gaitniece, L. Valda Oss-Lamond (1935-1968) - the First Latvian Female Pilot of Civil Aviation in Australia. Inženierzinātņu un augstskolu vēsture, 2017, Vol. 1, pp. 98-107. ISSN 2592-8155. e-ISSN 2592-8163. Available from: doi:10.7250/IAV.2017.007

Publication language
Latvian (lv)