Who Is Sue Smey on ‘Survivor’ Season 47? Meet the Flight School Owner Contestant

At 59 years old, Sue Smey is the oldest castaway on Survivor season 47 and her spunkiness made quite an impression on viewers, leaving them eager to learn more about her.

Who Is ‘Survivor’ Season 47 Contestant Sue Smey?

Sue is the founder of Whiskey Foxtrot Aviation, where she also serves as a flight instructor, according to her LinkedIn profile. The name “Whisky Foxtrot” has a double meaning as the initials also stand for “Women Fly” according to the school’s official website.

“We are here to encourage all women of all ages to not only think outside of the box but to actually STEP outside of the box,” her biography states on the website. “Just having the courage to step out of that box can be so scary for most. I am here as a testament that I chose to face that fear and look at me now. I am a pilot, I own a flight school, and most importantly I am so empowered.”

Her mission is to help grow the number of certified women pilots, which make up about 7 percent of the field.

She explained in a September 2024 interview with Parade that she got “bored easily” and stumbled into the aviation field by looking for “adventure and something exciting to do.”

“So in my 50s, I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to just become a pilot.’ And with that, once I became a pilot, I just bought a few airplanes and I just opened my own flight school,” she explained. “All by myself, nothing from anybody else, no handouts. It’s 100 percent mine, and I’m so damn proud of it.”

In her introduction to the show, she told viewers that she wanted to be remembered as “the oldest woman to ever win Survivor.”

“These people look at the old person and think they’re the weak person here, between my work ethic and my level of competition, they’re gonna soon realize that they want me here,” she explained in an Instagram clip shared by the show. “My grandson will always remember his grandma kicking butt on Survivor.”

Where Is ‘Survivor’ Season 47 Contestant Sue Smey From?

Sue is from Putnam Valley, New York, where she lives with her daughter Chelsea. Survivor played a big part in her life amid her daughter’s diabetes diagnosis, as they started watching the show for comfort during the tough times.

“My daughter watched the very first episode with me. She was seven years old. Life happened, my daughter started getting sick. She ended up being diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, but at the time, we didn’t know,” she told Entertainment Tonight in September 2024. “The only thing that was a good thing around that time were the times that Jeff came into our freakin’ living room and took us away from our reality, just for a brief moment. But that was the only time we literally didn’t think about our horrifying life and what was going to happen to her because we didn’t know.”