How my dad faked a heart attack while teaching me how to fly a plane at age 13 – Zanetor Rawlings

During an interview on GHOne’s Starr Chat on June 27, 2024, Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings shared that her late father, former President Jerry John Rawlings, began teaching her how to drive and fly at a very young age.

She recalled the day she flew a plane solo for the first time, a moment when her father pretended to have a heart attack while they were flying together to test her readiness to fly alone.

The legislator for Korle Klottey recounted how her father instructed her to land the plane due to his supposed heart attack, and after she successfully landed, he exited the plane and encouraged her to take off on her own.

“I flew my first plane at age 13. It was a circuit. He (her father) was braver than I was. It is a funny scenario because it was one of those situations where as a parent he taught me how to fly, had watched me, he knew what I was capable of; so, he got out of the plane and said go.

“What he did before was, as we were on final, he said he had a heart attack so I have to land the plane. I shut his eyes and I caught, what is this man doing. And I thought okay, I have to land this plane which I did. And I think for him, that was his way of testing whether I would be able to do it,” she narrated.

The MP added, “And then he got out and said, ‘you are ready, go’. And I looked at him, I was scared actually because I thought ‘I don’t know’ and he said ‘you are ready, go’. So, I did, I went and of course I was praying the whole way.”