The pre-flight address started like any other on Mother's Day morning.

"I'd like to introduce myself and my crew," Captain Tara Wright said as she stood at the front of her Alaska Airlines plane, shoulder-to-shoulder with First Officer Mallory Cave.

But flight 361 from San Francisco to Portland was not like any other in the airline's 86-year history.

Wright and Cave were the first all African American women crew to pilot an Alaska Airlines flight.

"You're sharing a pretty interesting piece of Alaska Airlines history this morning," Wright said to the passengers in a viral video posted Sunday. The video drew millions of views on Facebook and Twitter.

Making Alaska Airlines history this morning! First Officer Mallory Cave and I serve as the very first all African-American female crew on Alaska Flt #361, San Francisco to Portland, OR. 👩🏽‍✈️👩🏽‍✈️ Posted by Tara Dillon Wright on Sunday, May 13, 2018

Some passengers clapped or whistled after the brief announcement, but Wright soon got into the particulars of the one-hour and 26-minute flight.

Her employer, Alaska Airlines, shared the news on its Facebook page, and gave a nod to the nation's first licensed black woman pilot. "What Bessie Coleman started in 1921, we continue here," the company wrote.

According to 2017 data from the Federal Aviation Administration, 6.5 percent of the nation's active pilots or flight instructors are women.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen