British Pilot Chooses Bermuda As His Final Flight
A British pilot has chosen Bermuda as his final flight as the captain of a commercial airliner because of his love for the island.
Paul Griffin, who is retiring after 41 years, boarded the British Airways flight to London from Bermuda earlier this week.
He spent ten years flying 747 Jumbo jets, six years flying Concorde and was among the last to fly the supersonic jet before switching to Boeing 777s.
Mr Griffin has made 75 flights to Bermuda – about eight per cent of his 25,000 career flying hours – bringing in more than 25,000 passengers to the island.
Tarnia, Mr Griffin’s wife of 20 years, has been flying for nearly 34 years, now working as chief purser on a private aircraft based in Farnborough in Hampshire, England.
The pair, who met on Concorde, have three children. Their son Max, 26, is a senior first officer on British Airways; daughter Chloe, 29, is the chief stewardess on a superyacht, and Orianne, 18, will study commerce at the University of British Columbia near Vancouver in Canada.
Mr Griffin said he has lots of memories of staying at the Hamilton Princess and the Fairmont Southampton with his family and meeting many lifelong friends on the island.
