A retiring pilot landing his last flight after nearly five decades in aviation was overwhelmed to see a familiar face guiding his plane in yesterday.
Alan Chisholm was welcomed back to Glasgow Airport by his son Cameron – who is also a pilot but took on the role of marshall for his dad’s big day.
The Thomas Cook holiday jet from Mahon, Menorca, passed through an arch of water sprayed by two fire engines after it landed to the cheer of Alan’s colleagues at 12.05pm.
The 64-year-old, from Forres, Moray, said: “I’m sad to be finishing but relieved that everything went well. We will probably go and have a soft drink or two to celebrate.”
Alan joined the RAF as an aircraft engineer in 1971 at the age of 16 and embarked on an incredible career revolving round planes.
The dad-of-one, who grew up in Musselburgh, progressed to flight engineer on the Nimrod at RAF Kinloss before joining Caledonian Airways, one of the firms which merged to form Thomas Cook, as a flight engineer.
He then retrained as a pilot and was promoted to captain in 2007.
Cameron, 34, said: “He is a man of few words but he is very proud to have come to the end of a very successful flying career.”
