Suspended British Airways pilot 'drank 10 pints hours before flight'

[Skyjob]

To be honest, I find it quite a shock that collegues are drinking whithin the minimum hours before a flight.

However, if you have a 10 hour drinking ban before each duty (like in our company) and you're on say an 06:00 reporting time, this means that you cannot have a drink with your meal the night before, which again I find quite unrealistic.

Although it has to be said, rules are there to be enforced. There are several very good reasons for these rules and therefore they must be upheld. Although I can see the humane point of view within this conversation, too.

I just hope this will never come to a point where piltos and CC are nota llowed to drink at all during long(er) lay-overs, that would be the ultimate joke, wouldn't it?!

[Welcome_Aboard]

Pilots and F/As in the USA have to undergo random drug/alcohol testing. At my airline, if it’s ‘your turn’ to be tested, there is someone with a clipboard waiting just outside the airplane door. You are given the paperwork and have to go to the company medical department at the airport to be tested. At my airline, the tests are given only at the termination of our trips. I assume that it’s similar at the other USA airlines.

There is an incident that made headlines in the USA in 1990 involving Northwest Airlines pilots. It seems that they…*ahem*…partied on a layover in a town in North Dakota.

Here’s an excerpt from an article written about that incident and about USA airline drug/alcohol testing in general:
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“The three pilots got profoundly drunk in a Fargo, N.D., bar the night before their flight.

Capt. Norman Lyle Prouse consumed more than 15 rum-and-colas, then fell and gashed his head as he left the lounge at 11:30 p.m. The first officer, Robert Kirchner, and the flight engineer, Joseph Balzer, shared at least six pitchers of beer.

At 6:30 a.m. the next day, they climbed into the cockpit of a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 carrying 58 passengers. An FAA inspector in Fargo, who had been tipped off that the pilots had been drinking, confronted them. Yet, despite the pilots' bloodshot eyes and alcohol on their breath, the inspector did not think he had the authority to stop the flight from taking off.

Forty minutes later, the jet landed uneventfully in Minneapolis. Upon arrival, federal authorities arrested the pilots, then tested their blood-alcohol levels. Prouse, 51 at the time, was found to have .13 percent alcohol in his blood, well above the legal limit of .10 for driving a car in North Dakota. Kirchner had .06 and Balzer .08.

It was one of the most embarrassing and horrifying episodes of professional pilots being drunk on the job -- for Northwest and the industry.

After that March 1990 flight, the pilots were convicted of violating federal drug and alcohol laws, sentenced to short jail terms and fired.”
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It’s a long article, but if you’re interested, you can find it here…Click (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,24500000000105296,00.html).

Each airline makes its own policy/rules dictating the time between taking a drink and taking a flight (or as the article says, “bottle-to-throttle”), but the FAA rule is 8 hours.

At my airline, if a crew member believes they may have a problem with either drugs or alcohol, they can contact the EAP (Employee Assistance Program). They may have to go into a rehab program, but they are given a second chance. If, on the other hand, they have to take one of the random drug/alcohol tests, and they fail that test, they are history.

[flightdeck]

I was chocked by reading the following article. Of course you're innocent untill charged guilty, but.... It's about time they start breath testing, like is normal in the US for a long time already(?)

By Barrie Clement, Transport Editor

6 October 2000

British Airways was accused yesterday of presiding over a dangerous drinking culture among its flight crews after pilots were seen consuming large quantities of alcohol within hours of taking command ofairliners.

The captain of one flight from Barcelona to London allegedly reported for duty after having the equivalent of 10 pints and just three hours' sleep. The captain slept all the way back, while the aircraft was apparently flown by the first officer, who had the equivalent of eight pints and seven and a half hours' sleep.

Both men were seen carousing to the early hours of the morning in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be screened next week. Eleven pilots and three cabin crew were suspended over allegations by the programme that they had breached BA's rules on drinking.

Caroline Wooliston, a television researcher and former BA air stewardess who befriended the flight crews and helped to film their activities, told a press conference in London yesterday that drinking to excess was "endemic" among BA staff. Asked why she did not report her concerns to the airline when she was employed there, she said that colleagues who had done so had been "bullied and ostracised". She added: "It is a massive organisation and I would have been one very small voice."

The programme makers said they had filmed six flights and at least one crew member was found to have broken the rules in each case. Out of 12 pilots, 10 had been drinking excessively, they said. Pilots and cabin crew are not allowed to consume any alcohol within eight hours of a flight and are limited to a maximum of five units (one unit is a small glass of wine) over the preceding 16 hours.

Channel 4 said short-haul flights to continental destinations involving overnight stays were chosen because they were "notorious" for heavy drinking. However, the programme makers said the individual flights were selected at random. Ms Wooliston insisted she did not encourage the BA employees to drink.

Dorothy Byrne, commissioning editor at Channel 4, said the programme demonstrated how heavy drinking was a part of pilot culture. "It's clear that there is a potential risk to passenger safety which needs to be eliminated by closer monitoring and tighter regulation." She said there had been no attempt on the part of the flight crew to hide their activities.

The programme pointed out that while American pilots had to undergo random alcohol tests, there was no such procedure at BA because it was not part of employees' contracts.

The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, was said to be appalled by the programme's findings and called for a full report from the Civil Aviation Authority. Mr Prescott, who has responsibility for transport, expressed concerns over the length of time it had taken the company to make its revelations public. "I am concerned that a television company appears to have had this information for some time, but has only now made it public," he said.

The programme makers are understood to have filmed the crews in the spring.

The British Airline Pilots' Association has said it will defend its members and accused Channel 4 of "entrapment". BA has suspended the employees concerned pending an investigation, but has refused to comment on the allegations.



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If God had intended man to fly, He would not have invented Spanish Air Traffic Control.

— Lister, in the BBC TV series, 'Red Dwarf.'

[flightdeck]

Well, also following article was published about breath testing. Hopefully more airlines will follow..


BA considers breath testing
By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent
Published: October 5 2000 22:12GMT | Last Updated: October 6 2000 06:25GMT



British Airways is considering the introduction of random breathalyser testing for its pilots and cabin crew.

The move has been under consideration for several months and has taken on fresh urgency this week after BA removed from flying duties 11 pilots and three cabin crew following allegations they had drunk alcohol before flying aircraft.

The Civil Aviation Authority expressed concern yesterday about the absence of legislation setting legal limits on alcohol consumption by pilots and cabin crew.

An investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches programme, disclosed to the media on Thursday, showed filmed evidence of BA pilots drinking excessive amounts of alcohol during overnight stopovers in Barcelona and Frankfurt.

In the most extreme case one pilot, Captain Chris Salmon, was said to have consumed 20 units of alcohol, the equivalent of 10 pints of beer, in bars in Barcelona.

It was alleged that he had barely three hours of rest before reporting for duty as captain of flight BA2488 on July 25 back to Gatwick. The programme alleges that it was later informed by two crew members that Captain Salmon "slept all the way back to London".

The CAA said that it viewed the allegations to be screened in the Dispatches programme next Thursday "with great concern".

It said it had "no clear evidence to suggest that alcohol abuse [among flight crews] is widespread", but it had long been in favour of introducing an alcohol limit and powers to enable alcohol testing.

"Both these areas require primary legislation, which can only be introduced by the government."

Captain Mike Vivian, head of the CAA's flight operations inspectorate, said: "The CAA has previously made it clear and will do so again to the government that it is in favour of the granting of legal powers for the police to conduct testing where there is reasonable cause."

The Department of Transport said it had worked on proposals for introducing an alcohol limit (of 20mgs of alcohol per 100ml of blood) for civil aviation personnel as well as for giving police the power to conduct testing, but no space had been found in the legislative timetable.

British airlines have their own strict rules, but BA said on Thursday that it knew of none that had any system of testing flight crew for alcohol. Both Lufthansa of Germany and Virgin Atlantic said they did not carry out any random alcohol testing.

In the US, however, airlines have been obliged to carry out random testing since 1995.






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If God had intended man to fly, He would not have invented Spanish Air Traffic Control.

— Lister, in the BBC TV series, 'Red Dwarf.'

[KLM_guy]

Is it true that this was an ordinary set-up? Anybody anybody????????

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It only takes five years to go from rumor to standard operating procedure.

— Dick Markgraf

[Belg1972]

In Barcelona, go to the "black sheep" bar (hehe what's in a name) near plaza catalunya, and ask who is flight/cabin crew... the majority will be UK crew there getting drunk as fast as possible...

It 's a sad view ... and this counts for other companies too...

Being drunk in an A/C is intolerable but I think companies must search the origin of getting drunk at layovers or in "crewbars" in the way they threat their own crew: minimum rest at layovers, 4 sectors a day, running for ATCslots, short turnovers, no social life anymore, ...solution: have fun with those who experience the same thing i.e. the rest of your crew... It's sad, reality shocks http://www.crewstart.com/ubb/images/icons/frown.gif

This minimum rest has to be reviewed anyway...it was made up in times that people didn't do 4 sectors, didn't take off 4 times a day...


[This message has been edited by Belg1972 (edited October 20, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Belg1972 (edited October 20, 2000).]

[traveler]

I agree the minimum rest is short.
But do you think that years ago on the long layovers less alcohol was consumed ?

[blacksheep]

Hey Fred!
What's your problem with the black sheep? I'm on mineral water since I was born!