Zoë de Bruijn, 22, from Rosmalen, reportedly obtained her pilot’s licence before her driving licence. She completed VWO at 17 after skipping a grade and was allowed to start at the KLM Flight Academy at 18 as an exception. She obtained her first licence for a small aircraft that year and, needing to travel to Schiphol for training, passed her driving test after five days of lessons. De Bruijn says she may have been KLM’s youngest pilot and flew passengers at 20.

Her father is a pilot and her mother is a flight attendant, and the three recently worked together on a flight to Curaçao. De Bruijn continues to take photographs and hopes to work for National Geographic. She requested a three-month sabbatical to gain life experience and obtain diving qualifications, but the request has so far been rejected because there are too few pilots.