At first, Marie Handren, 37, of Costa...

At first, Marie Handren, 37, of Costa Mesa thought she was too old to have a chance of becoming a flight attendant. But after she finished some courses at Orange Coast College, Western Airlines hired her.

“I’m not even the oldest in my class,” she said in a telephone interview from her training classes at Los Angeles International Airport, where Western spokesman Glenn Bozarth dispelled some other flight attendant myths.

“The average age of flight attendants today is in the mid-30s,” he said, “and half of the flight attendant class is composed of males. It’s been that way for the past five or six years.”

While a large part of the class is in the 21-to-24 age bracket, he noted, “we’re receptive to people of all age levels.” Bozarth said the oldest in Handren’s class is 39.

Handren, married and mother of two, worked as a lab technician 17 years before considering the career change, but admits it was a lifelong dream. “If you feel you really want it,” she advises, “then go for it.”

How would she handle an aggressive passenger? “We learn the art of being tactful,” she replied.