Pilots out of their office - Sami Olivier

HOBBY

‘What I like about scuba diving is the freedom, the possibility of moving in three dimensions,’ Sami Olivier says about his hobby. ‘It’s somewhat similar to flying, because both have strict procedures and rules to follow, and both are very rewarding once you know the rules and can operate within those rules.’

Sami met a scuba diving instructor in Canada, who later became his friend. ‘This friend made a great impression on me, and I decided to try scuba diving,’ he says. ‘I loved it! I thought it was what I wanted to do and became an instructor. Of all places, I did my training in Canada – in the lakes and the Saint Lawrence River, in very difficult conditions. But learning the hard way was my mindset back then.’

Sami later moved to Spain and worked as an instructor near Girona. After a while he came across an advertisement for an ROV pilot job. ‘ROVs are like small submarines operated from the surface. They’re equipped with a camera and so-called arms and are used a lot in the oil and gas industry,’ he explains. ‘With the flying I had done before, and my degree in civil engineering and scuba diving experience, it felt like a perfect match. I did some training for that and got an internship in the south of France piloting ROVs. During that time, I met someone who was doing hydrographic surveys – mapping the ocean floor – for which ROVs can be used as well.’

So, with no experience in that particular field – but being a fast learner – Sami got a job and was soon sent on his first mission, to the Middle East. He later also worked in Yemen, Angola, and other countries. Places where mapping the ocean floor was needed before construction work on the coastline began.

‘It was a very interesting and rewarding job, also financially, which eventually allowed me to do my flight training. But it was also a very dangerous job,’ Sami recalls. ‘I spent eight months in Yemen, where I lost some colleagues due to accidents. In Angola we were working on a minefield. It felt like the work was getting more and more dangerous, and just before I was sent to Nigeria, I said this is where I stop. In a way, though, that job got me back to flying, which has always been my passion. I didn’t want to be at the back of an aircraft; I wanted to be at the front of it and returned to my initial plan, which was to become a pilot.’

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Sami’s boss knew that his passion was flying, and after Sami completed his last mission, he moved to San Diego, California, to do his flight training and received his private pilot licence. While there, he found out about the Scandinavian Aviation Academy in San Diego and decided to do the second part of his training in Sweden. He graduated from the school in 2013.

‘I got my first job only three years later. The time leading up to that was like crossing a desert – a very, very bad time in my life,’ Sami says. ‘That first job was with a cargo company based in Estonia, flying small routes all over Europe. After a year of that, I made my next step. I thought if I didn’t make a move quickly, I could get stuck with an easy life and easy flying, not really challenging myself or growing. I’d always wanted to live in Sweden, so I moved there and flew for a small company carrying passengers in northern Sweden.’

But the company began having financial issues, so Sami left. airBaltic happened to be recruiting pilots for its Airbus A220-300 aircraft right then. ‘I saw a good opportunity to upgrade my career and do something different,’ Sami says. He began working for airBaltic in 2018. Initially, he wanted to stay in Stockholm and commute, but he quickly realised that wouldn’t be possible and moved to Riga. A year later, he met his girlfriend, Claudia. She’s now his wife and also flies as a first officer for airBaltic.

‘I got laid off during the pandemic, but I knew I wanted to come back to airBaltic and was rehired in October 2021,’ Sami says. ‘Hats off to airBaltic for how the process was handled. First, we got constant updates about what was going on, and the way we were rehired was very professional and avoided unnecessary issues. The system was clear, and everybody knew where they stood. It maintained a very good atmosphere.’