Qantas captain Cornay Sinac touched down in Sydney last Friday on what marked his final flight after 41 years of service.<\/p>\n
The 66-year-old started with the airline at just 24 years of age back in 1984 after having learned to fly before he could even drive. <\/p>\n
He was 16 when started taking flying lessons at Melbourne\u2019s Moorabbin Airport and has gone on to clock around 23,000 flying hours since he started with the national carrier. <\/p>\n
The well-respected captain has trained pilots across the Boeing 767, Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 fleets \u2013 and on Friday, he got the ultimate and most \u201cunexpected\u201d welcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m extremely humbled by all the attention and a little bit embarrassed,\u201d Mr Sinac told news.com.au.<\/p>\n
When the A380 captain taxied into Gate 8 at Sydney\u2019s International Airport following a flight from London on August 28, not only was he greeted by his peers, but his two sons who also happen to work for the airline \u2013 Joseph, 32, a First Officer and Noah, 30, an engineer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think it would happen,\u201d Mr Sinac said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe landed at about 5.04am and my youngest son, Noah, who\u2019s a first year apprentice with Qantas engineering was waiting at the gate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI shut the engines down and the engineer traditionally plugs into the intercom down near the nose wheel outside of the plane and \u2026 my younger son says, \u2018Hey Dad, welcome to Sydney\u2019. It was just fabulous,\u201d an emotional Mr Sinac said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Joseph was waiting at 5.10am to open the door to the aircraft to officially welcome home his father. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen Noah, Joseph and I, together with my wife who was a passenger on the plane, all got together to farewell the aeroplane,\u201d Mr Sinac said.<\/p>\n
His wife, Lorna travelled with him on his final trip. She\u2019s a former Qantas cabin crew member. In a very rare and unique case, the entire family works or has worked for the airline. <\/p>\n
Biggest highlight<\/p>\n
When looking back at his time with the airline, Mr Sinac said the biggest highlight was meeting his wife who went onto become a flight attendant for the airline. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was in a bar called the Sherlock Holmes Pub in The Gulf Hotel Bahrain. I [obviously] had no idea she was going to be my wife,\u201d he laughed. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were mates for two years and then romance developed, and after that she moved to Sydney and the rest of history \u2013 we\u2019ve been together for 35 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lorna was cabin crew for Gulf Air before moving to Sydney where she worked as a nurse and eventually became cabin crew for Qantas. <\/p>\n
Joseph and Noah unsurprisingly followed in their parents\u2019 aviation footsteps with the whole family working for the airline. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wish nothing for them but what I have, which is a career where you go to work and it\u2019s not really going to work, you\u2019re doing what you love,\u201d Mr Sinac said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to them, try to hunt for what you love and then try to get employed to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoseph is a pilot with Qantas freight, he\u2019s doing what he loves, he\u2019s obsessed and Noah left his career at Sydney University working in the network department and he\u2019s now in engineering, fixing all the things that Joe and I manage to break.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Sinac said \u2013 apart from the trip he met his wife \u2013 he\u2019s had many unforgettable moments working for the airline, noting all wonderful staff, cabin crew and mentors who\u2019ve helped shape his career. <\/p>\n
CLICK HERE<\/a> to vote for your favourite travel business and you could win one of 8 incredible travel prizes, worth over $45,000 in total! <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s exciting but it\u2019s sad because I won\u2019t see these people again.\u201d<\/p>\n To this day he vividly remembers his first flight.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was from Sydney to Melbourne to Singapore, to Bangkok, to Athens to Rome and then all the way back again. It was just unbelievable,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Other highlights include all the incredible experiences he\u2019s had travelling to different parts of the world and the \u201cmind-blowing\u201d things he gets to see out of the cockpit window. <\/p>\n \u201cThe other night I was flying back over the Pacific and I just took my iPhone out, stuck it on the window and took a photograph,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cThere in the photo was the Milky Way \u2026 it was incredible. You sit there and just think \u2018that\u2019s mind-blowing\u2019 \u2013 and we get to see this stuff all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Sinac has now officially retired from Qantas as international pilots can\u2019t exceed flying past the age of 65. <\/p>\n \u201cI have to make a seat for someone else internationally to come from underneath me in terms of seniority and do what I’ve been able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the career of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n Read related topics:Qantas<\/a>Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Qantas captain Cornay Sinac touched down in Sydney last Friday on what marked his final flight after 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