Alasdair Sutherland was born in Glasgow, only child of William, a design engineer, and housewife, Janet. After education at Lenzie Primary, Lenzie Academy and Glasgow University, he won a place at the College at Hamble where British Airways trained their pilots. His career progressed from HS Tridents, L1011, to twin turboprops where he achieved command. Then, after a couple of years as senior copilot on the B747-400, it was back to the left seat on B757/767. The 9/11 attack had a big impact. After compulsory retirement, interest in aviation continued but he concentrated on designing and flying model aircraft.
For every 1,000 people who applied to be airline pilots in BEA/BOAC back in the day, about four made it. The other 996, plus their wives, parents, and children, might wonder how their lives could have turned out, so here is the story of one of the four. Besides, the passengers who sit behind that lo...