Seafleet From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 110 posts, RR: 0 Posted (6 years 2 months 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 2357 times:
An american airlines FO was 3 times over the limit for alchohol when arrested at MAN in Feb 2006.
Wow just as well they caught him before take off.The link is below but I do feel sorry for the guy as he clearly has a problem if he turns up to fly with these sort of levels.
WorkFlyer From New Zealand, joined Dec 2006, 203 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (6 years 2 months 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 2249 times:
It would be nice to think that even if he had made it onto the plane, the captain would have noticed his state and stood him down. But of course he did not get that far, so we will never know.
I remember an English TV documentary of a few years back that showed an overnighting crew getting legless and returning to the hotel only a few hours before they were due to turn up for duty. Apparently the captain "slept it off" on the return to the UK, leaving the only slightly less hungover FO to fly back, not good at all.
In this case his excuse that he was going to tell the captain he was sick and not going to fly does not add up though. Especially given that he was in uniform and trying to access airside through the crew channel. If he was "sick" why could he not use the phone. Of course maybe he was so legless he did not think of that.
Quick question though. Would the flight have been able to leave with just the two existing crew? Or do they need the relief staffer?
Bongodog1964 From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2006, 3012 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (6 years 1 month 4 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 1480 times:
IMO the case should never have reached court. The pilot was in a taxi, and stopped at security because he couldn't produce his pass. We can all speculate whether he was intending to report for duty, or report sick; the simple matter is though that he had not reached the offices where he would have had to commit himself either way.
This decision to prosecute, would be in another context the equivalant of prosecuting a person for drunk driving merely because they had a set of car keys in their pocket. The prosecution needs to prove to the jury that the person either commited the offence or was about to commit it; they couldn't so the not guilty verdict followed.
An entirely different matter though is any AA internal procedures that he may have flouted.
Flybyguy From United States of America, joined Jun 2004, 1791 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (6 years 1 month 4 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 1323 times:
What a dumb fu*k. He spent years gaining his status as an airline pilot in a beleagered U.S. airline industry only to throw it all away the night before reporting to duty. I have no sympathy for pilots like that. He obviously was going to report to duty if he was wearing his uniform.... I have no idea how they found him not guilty... probably one of those idiotic legal technicalities that legal systems in the western world are known for.
"Are you a pretender... or a thoroughbred?!" - Professor Matt Miller
Molykote From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 1335 posts, RR: 30 Reply 8, posted (6 years 1 month 4 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 1311 times:
If he didn't "act as a First Officer" while intoxicated so be it (at least as far as legal matters go).
I'd just hope that AA (no pun) deals with this as deemed appropriate.
Situations such as this always leave a bad taste in my mouth. Although I understand union obligations to their members, some naive part of me wants to believe that unions should do something to illustrate to the public that they hold standards of excellence when situations such as this arise. (Note that I am not saying ALPA doesn't hold standards of excellence).
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