Air Canada freight flight into Prestwick settles a 30 year old bet.
A lifetime dedicated to serving Prestwick airport inspires the next generation.
In the early hours of Friday morning an Air Canada Boeing 767 freighter landed at Prestwick.
The flight came in from Toronto and departed late last night back to Toronto. The arrival at 2 a.m. was watched by Ayrshire man Jim McCall and his daughter Claire MacGillivary.
Very few people were there to see the arrival but Jim and Claire were determined to see the flight land at Prestwick. Even fewer people knew that the first Air Canada freight flight into Prestwick, for exactly 30 years, won Jim a bet he had made with an old colleague in Montreal.
Claire told Ayrshire Daily News that her father had e mailed a picture to his old colleague Sam. “Air Canada last flew freight flights into Prestwick in 1994.
Dad used to be the Air Canada freight manager at Prestwick and Sam was manager of the whole fleet of Air Canada DC8 freighters.”
Jim explained that he had bet Sam that he would “one day” get an Air Canada freight flight back into Prestwick. Yesterday that flight finally arrived and Jim won the beer which was his bet with Sam all those years ago.
Jim started at Prestwick in 1968 and worked for Air Canada. He recalls the huge volumes of freight that their dedicated freight flights used to bring through Prestwick.
“Air Canada started flights to Prestwick in 1943. Even I was not working then but I recall when we had flights originating in Houston and Chicago that routed through Toronto to Prestwick. They then went on to Frankfurt or Zurich. We had enormous loads of oil freight bound for Aberdeen or computer equipment into Scotland’s Silicon Glen.”
Jim went on to work as the freight manager of Prestwick Airport itself and even after his official retirement he was asked back several times as a consultant to give advice to the freight managers who succeeded him in that role. Before retiring Jim gave advice to the new freight management team and one airline he suggested they target was Air Canada.
“I only made the suggestion – the team at PIK carried out all the hard work to attract this Air Canada flight to Prestwick.
As far as I know this is just a one off flight but now they are here they can experience for themselves the facilities and services Prestwick can offer. Who knows what may follow.”
Jim’s daughter Claire recalls her childhood being around Prestwick airport and even has a unique photograph taken in 1994. She is pictured with her sister Jill standing at the steps of the final Air Canada DC8 freighter through Prestwick in 1994. Now she can add pictures with her dad standing in front of yesterday’s Boeing 767.
“Dad lived and breathed aviation, freight and especially Prestwick. He was an inspiration and because of him I naturally aimed at an aviation career.” Claire joined the aviation world and started in the high pressure world of Air Traffic Control.
As a young Controller she qualified as an Oceanic Air Traffic Controller 15 years ago and works in the ultra modern Prestwick ATC centre. Day and night she can be found overseeing huge numbers of flights crossing the North Atlantic.
Softly spoken Jim recalled many challenges in his career. His voice briefly crackled with emotion when he recalled the disappointment of a huge Antonov freighter loaded at Prestwick and ready to fly to the assistance of the Russian submariners trapped at the bottom of the Barents sea after the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in August 2000. Russian President Vladimir Putin delayed and delayed before finally accepting the help of the west in the shape of a mini rescue submarine.
“We were too late and we could not save them”
Many happier days made up Jim’s working life with great colleagues. Air Canada’s 50th anniversary of operating through Prestwick was celebrated in 1993. He recalled with glee the first shipments of pedigree Canadian cattle imported into Scotland through Prestwick. “We made temporary pens in the freight sheds before we finally built a dedicated animal handling area. We sent Clydesdale horses the other way.“
Jim’s mother and father came to work at Prestwick in the 1940s. They met at the airport and married. It is hardly surprising that aviation runs through the family.
Jim is pictured standing beside the Air Canada flight today with old colleagues and also with his daughter. Wilson Wight and Tommy Hay are with Jim who is in the centre of the picture. They all worked on that last DC8 freighter in April 1994. Missing from the photo are Colin Kennedy and Ian Dawson who also worked for Air Canada in 1994 but couldn’t be there yesterday. Jim simply said. “I knew I could win that bet. Now it’s time to fully retire and let the others continue where we left off.”
Jim is one of many hundreds of people inspired to dedicate his working life to aviation. We owe all those Jims a great debt for keeping Prestwick as beating The Heart of Scottish Aviation.
Picture credits
Night arrival Claire MacGillivary
1994 pictures Jim McCall
Sunset departures Eddie Wallace