Passengers on a Monarch flight from Birmingham to Turin today might have had to do a double take – the pilots were father and son!
John Sharples, who’s flown with Monarch for 29 years celebrated his 56th birthday on the flight as he was joined by his son Luke.
Almost to the day 25 years ago, John was pilot on a Monarch 757 flight from Madrid to Gatwick, when he took a call from Operations asking “what time the aircraft would be landing?” He later found out that his wife, Liz, who was Monarch cabin crew at the time, had gone into labour with Luke.
John says: “It was a bit unusual to get the call from Ops in that the flight was on-time and due to land after midnight – as planned. It later transpired upon my arrival at Gatwick that my wife, Liz, had gone into labour and had been taken to hospital. Unbeknown to me, the team had kindly arranged for a taxi to be waiting to whisk me to the hospital where Luke was born 15 minutes after I arrived.”
Throughout John’s time as a pilot Luke mirrored his enthusiasm for aviation, regularly travelling with his father on flights. In 2007 at the age of 17 he completed his Private Pilots Licence, and later studied with CTC Aviation in New Zealand before being taken on as one of a group of 18 cadets who joined Monarch in February 2012 on the Airbus A320/321.
Luke said: “Dad really is my inspiration when it comes to flying. Aviation was all I knew from a young age. I started logging flying hours towards my pilot’s licence from the age of 14 and I was flying before I could drive!
John recently re-trained onto the Airbus fleet: “What a unique and wonderful way to celebrate my 56th birthday. This flight will be a little strange for me in that I am still quite new to this type of aircraft. Although I have more than 21,000 flying hours, Luke will be the more experienced pilot on the Airbus.”
He added: “Having flown with Monarch for so many years, I’ve seen a large number of trainees progress through the system and it’s always a high point helping them to come through. For one to be my son and to have him on board flying alongside me is incredibly special – it’s a proud day all round.”
With regard to the flight, Luke said: “I remember being sat in the flightdeck on a flight with dad when I was 12 being in awe, wishing it was me that was flying. Since then it has been an aspiration to be able to fly with him. It has taken a long time and a lot of luck but finally I can tick off one of my major life goals. Knowing how hard and long I have worked for this opportunity to fly with my dad makes it very exciting.”
