In the early 1980s, I attended the first statewide HIMS seminar in Denver. Every airline, from Bar Harbor to Pan Am, and everyone in between sent representatives. The various unions sent representatives as well as AMEs. Chief flight surgeon Audie Davis opened the week-long seminar by saying that if 10 percent of the population were alcoholics, airline pilots would be no different. The FAA, airlines and unions are committed to saving pilots` careers and health! The HIMS program is one of the most successful in saving lives and careers! I`m proud to have been only a very small part of it! Retired airline pilot I believe the HIMS program is for self-reported pilots who have nothing on their files yet, not for those who have already been blown up by the airline or law enforcement for trying to fly drunk. After his release from prison, Prouse was forced to requalify for each of his FAA licenses and classifications. Bankrupt, he relied on a friend who lent him time in a single-engine trainer. Northwest`s CEO at the time, John Dasburg, who himself grew up in an alcoholic family, took a personal interest in Prouse`s fight and publicly lobbied for his return. You are probably right, Patrick, that the airlines in the United States and Western Europe operate a strict vessel with regard to alcohol and that most of the pilots of those airlines also adhere firmly to the guidelines.

However, what worries me is when I fly to Russia. I`ve heard first-hand accounts of vodka tours in the cockpit, which is consistent with everything I`ve seen in the land of love for the national spirit. Go to a Russian grocery store and you will literally see a wall of vodka – why should a pilot be less of a man when it comes to choosing a bottle from this wall? Although I have no information about the fact that Russian planes have ever crashed due to the drunkenness of the pilots, I am always concerned when I board a plane in Siberia at 5 a.m., often with other travelers who spent their night at the hotel bar, that the people at the controls of the plane did the same. To illustrate how this is calculated, let`s take the middle person, who weighs 155 pounds. A standard alcoholic beverage would result in a blood alcohol level of 0.03% immediately after consumption. If this person drank 6 drinks fast enough, 8 hours later, their blood alcohol level could be estimated by entering the numbers and doing the math as follows: Airlines are required by the FAA to randomly test pilots for drugs and alcohol, and tests may also be required after an accident or if someone — such as a crew member or security personnel — has reason to believe. that a pilot could be under the influence. I wonder if a minor case of autobrewery syndrome (production of detectable amounts of ethanol in the gut) poses an occupational hazard to airline pilots. In a safety brochure calling alcohol and flying a “lethal suit,” the FAA warns, “Any factor that interferes with the pilot`s ability to perform required tasks while an aircraft is in flight is an invitation to disaster.” 2 United pilots detained for suspected poisoning before flight The blood alcohol level at any given time depends mainly on the size (and to a lesser extent the sex) of the person, the amount ingested and the time elapsed since ingestion. This has nothing to do with the person`s experience of alcohol, although addiction certainly leads to tolerance, meaning that higher blood alcohol levels can be tolerated by the individual. The Federal Aviation Administration does not allow pilots to fly if their blood alcohol level is 0.04 or higher. “If you`re arrested for drunk flying…

The FAA and the airline will intervene so quickly to revoke privileges,” said Doug Murphy, a Houston defense attorney who specializes in alcohol-impaired driving cases. “It won`t be an automatic revocation, but there will be a suspension that will prevent them from flying until they have made a decision and understood what the facts are.” I read it a few years ago; I`ve known for a long time what must have happened to MH370. No, honestly. I must acknowledge that pilots have now been convicted on several occasions of flying or attempting to fly while impaired. At the same time, it must be made clear how unusual this is. Tens of thousands of commercial flights depart every day around the world. Of all the things that could endanger even one of these planes, drunk pilots are a statistically insignificant threat they could exist. I understand and expect passengers to deal with all sorts of things, rational and otherwise. But as a general rule, whether your drivers are drunk or not should not be one of them. These rare and isolated incidents deserve the attention they receive, and they must be taken seriously.

But they are not a symptom of a dangerous and invisible crisis. My personal observations are hardly a scientific sample, but I have been flying commercially since 1990 and have never been in a cockpit with a pilot I suspected was intoxicated. However, there is a way to get back in the air. An FAA-run addiction treatment program, supported by airlines and unions, coordinates the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of pilots struggling with substance abuse. Through the Human Intervention Motivation Study program, pilots can work on restoring their medical certification and returning to work, according to HIMS` official website. Many of us know the frustration of having to wait a little longer while ground staff take a bag away from a flight because the owner doesn`t show up on time. A little less common is the sight of a passenger removed from a flight, usually due to disruptive behavior. But what about a pilot who is taken away? It seems that this also happens in extreme circumstances related to drunkenness. On August 3, two United Airlines pilots were arrested at Glasgow Airport, Scotland, after allegedly grounding a breathalyzer test before a flight to Newark, New Jersey. Correction of my statement. The AWA pilots were not relentless when they were recalled. Three incidents are ingrained in my head, suggesting that the frequency of drunk pilots trying to fly a plane is very rare.

My wife was flying with HP America West when two of the company`s pilots were arrested in Miami because they were obviously drunk. The reports claimed that the ICP had attempted to roll with the tug still attached. For months, crews were forced to hear silly comments and jokes from technical assistants about the Miami incident. “Did our pilots fall into it or were they sober?”, “You should take a breathalyzer test to check your properties, you have to admit it`s a good idea” The first incident I became aware of involved two pilots from the Northwest who had been drinking before the flight. This led to the “extremely funny” answer to the question of what an AP wanted to drink: “Oh, just give me what the pilots drink. I believe there were other incidents in NW prior to their merger. The example you mentioned has been reported around the world, embarrassing all American airlines. The personal risks associated with drinking alcohol during a crew stopover are so great that it implies that one or more pilots are poor risk managers, which does not give confidence to the travelling public. If they had to drink, if it is illegal and it costs you your job, how would the person deal with the many risks that a pilot constantly faces? The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement to USA TODAY that it is investigating the alleged incident.

FAA drug and alcohol regulations prohibit pilots from consuming alcohol while on duty or within eight hours of “performing flight duties.” Here`s what an airline might owe you to ruin a trip FAA regulations state that a pilot cannot have a blood or breath alcohol concentration of 0.04 or higher, which is half the legal limit for driving in the United States. And pilots are not allowed to drink alcohol for eight hours of acting or attempting to act as a crew member — “from cylinder to throttle,” as the FAA puts it. Why not give pilots and chaperones a breathalyzer test when they check in for their shift, which is done by the airport`s independent security? I think the cost would be worth it because it would put everyone at ease. While events are rare, they are only those where pilots were actually captured or where the media was informed. From truck drivers to rock stars to people in the aviation industry. They call him. Some countries have stricter rules than the United States, and pilots would be subject to them under local jurisdiction as well as FAA regulations; Scotland, for example, has a lower breath alcohol concentration threshold than the United States. And airline guidelines could be even stricter than those of the FAA. United`s new policy went into effect Saturday; A bulletin to employees included a reminder that countries outside the U.S. have different rules and can impose their own punishment.

To be pedantic, Scotland`s limit for drunk driving is actually different from England`s. In Scotland, it is 0.05, which is only two and a half times stricter than for pilots. Patrick, do you think the limit – around 0.02% for flying, “four times the UK limit for drunk driving” means the limit for drunk driving is 0.005%? Or is the flight limit “a quarter” of the driving limit? That would make the driving limit about as high as in Massachusetts, if I`m not mistaken, at 0.08%. I think it should read `four times *lower* than the UK drinking and driving limit, which is 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, so 0.08% as you suggest. This is a difficult question for me – perhaps the most difficult of all subjects. Incidents like these are a shameful black eye for the profession. The sound you heard was that of thousands of pilots everywhere, moaning with embarrassment, if not anger. And they kept alive a persistent cliché of the airline pilot: the divorced renegade who drinks hard, his eyes flanked by crow`s feet and a whiskey-tempered train, a bottle in his suitcase.