The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Cleared for departure – hostess of 44 years retires
People: Charmaine makes final flight
One of the UK’s longestserving cabin crew has flown her final flight after a career spanning more than 44 years.
Charmaine McCall-Hagan, 65, from Bothwell, south Lanarkshire, completed her final flight last Friday on a Loganair service from Shetland to Edinburgh.
She started her career in 1973 at the age of 21 with British Airways with her first flight to Belfast.
It was on the Belfast route that she met her husband, now retired pilot Captain Bill Hagan, who earned fame for saving the lives of 400 passengers after a hijacking attempt on a British Airways 747 bound for Nairobi, Kenya in 2000. A male Kenyan passenger stormed the flight deck, sending the jumbo jet into a 10,000ft nosedive, with Mr Hagan having to resort to sticking his finger in the hijacker’s eye to neutralise him.
Mrs McCall-Hagan said: “I was on board with the children and Bill was flying the aircraft. I wouldn’t like to do it again.
“Afterwards we said it was like winning the lottery because we survived it.”
Mr Hagan said of the incident: “It happened in the months before September 11 and the review happened at the time of that incident, so it was all combined.”
Mrs McCall-Hagan’s aviation career was primarily spent in Scotland, apart from six years when she worked with British Airways’ long-haul fleet travelling to destinations in the US and Africa.
The mother-of-two has looked after many wellknown passengers including George Best, Prince Andrew and Princess Anne.
She joined Loganair in 2011 and the Scottish regional airline marked her departure by holding an informal ceremony in Sumburgh Airport’s departure lounge and announcing to passengers it would be her final flight.
Mrs McCall-Hagan said: “I’ve had a fantastic career and when you think about it I can’t go on forever – I must be the oldest stewardess in Britain. I’ve had a great time from start to finish. We own a boat in Largs – so I could be swapping the skies for the ocean.”