'Drunk' British Airways pilot is hauled off of Gatwick flight by armed police

[Happy Trails]

A British Airways pilot has been hauled from a packed flight by armed police seconds from take-off after his cabin crew suspected he was drunk.

Staff on the 300-passenger flight who thought they could smell alcohol on him and feared for the safety of those on board called 999.

The first officer on the Boeing 777 flight 2063 to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, which takes 11 hours, was arrested and led away.



Read more: 'Drunk' British Airways pilot hauled from Gatwick flight | Daily Mail Online

 

[jb747]

Be interesting to see if he really was....

 

[Ansett]

Wonder if he was on call perhaps?

 

[Happy Trails]

Be interesting to see if he really was....

The article went on to say he 'remained in custody' which tends to suggest so, otherwise I would expect him to have been released fairly promptly following a negative test.

 

[kermatu]

"Seconds from takeoff" ??

 

[codash1099]

"Seconds from takeoff" ??

Daily Mail

 

[Happy Trails]

Daily Mail

Which it looks like they lifted it from The Sun, which had it down to just "moments".

THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN 'BOOZING'
Armed police hauled a BA pilot off plane fearing he was drunk

 

[kermatu]

I guess the headline is all that matters these days.

 

[rock86]

I guess the headline is all that matters these days.

Definately, since

'98% of the population base their views simply off headlines'

Spoiler

the above is an imitation of a typical exaggerated daily mail/the sun headline

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Daily Mail

Daily Fail.

 

[Happy Trails]

A British Airways pilot who reported for work when more than four times the legal alcohol limit has been warned he is likely to be jailed.

Julian Monaghan, 49, was arrested at Gatwick Airport on 18 January.

He was found to have 86mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system - the legal limit for a pilot is 20mg.

Monaghan, who no longer works as a pilot, admitted reporting for duty when his level of alcohol was over the proscribed [sic] limit.

He had been due to be part of a crew flying a Boeing 777 to Mauritius, Crawley Magistrates' Court heard.

Over-the-limit pilot given jail warning

 

[Hvr]

admitted reporting for duty when his level of alcohol was over the proscribed [sic] limit.

The word proscribed is correct.

proscribe Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

proscribe verb [ T ]
of a government or other authority) to not allow something:
uk /prəʊˈskraɪb/ us /proʊˈskraɪb/ formal

 

[Happy Trails]

The word proscribed is correct.

proscribe Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

But the limit is allowed.
Maybe one for the grammar thread?

 

[kelvedon]

He has been sentenced to 8 months jail.

Pre-flight double vodkas pilot jailed

 

[Quickstatus]

How would a pilot know whether their BAC was going to be an issue?

 

[jb747]

How would a pilot know whether their BAC was going to be an issue?

Isn’t it always going to be an issue? Anyway, he wasn’t just a little over the limit.

I’m standby tomorrow. The chances are that I won’t fly at all. But, just in case I am, the window for a glass of wine closed an hour ago.

 

[Quickstatus]

Quite sad really.
Entire career thrown out the door.

Surely there must be a better way, than to discover BAC after eviction from the flight deck and arrest.

If discovered prior to arrival at flight deck helpful measures could have been put in place to help the pilot before career and reputation is trashed

 

[trooper]

The "Armed police" thing was nicely dramatic too... My impression was the airport police are some of the minority of Brit Police who are routinely armed. Nice of that rag to make it sound like they "geared up" just for this guy.....

Quickstatus makes a good point... I work in the public transport field...and our drivers (0 % BAC limit these days) can take a legitimate sick day if they think they might have had too much the night before.....

 

[Happy Trails]

My workplace BAC limit is also zero.
Anything above that will, effectively, result in instant dismissal.
Testing is random, but very frequent.
The company does provide pre-entry self-test facilities though, so there's little excuse for those that fail.

 

[Quickstatus]

The "Armed police" thing was nicely dramatic too... My impression was the airport police are some of the minority of Brit Police who are routinely armed. Nice of that rag to make it sound like they "geared up" just for this guy.....

Quickstatus makes a good point... I work in the public transport field...and our drivers (0 % BAC limit these days) can take a legitimate sick day if they think they might have had too much the night before.....

In organisations where a zero BAC is mandatory and dismissal if above, I think there should be a facility where employees can be mandatorily tested prior to commencement of duty. Any unacceptable reading means employee is stood down for the day, but then has to also submit to a D&A consultation. Obviously several of these episodes then raises red flags and treatment can be offered or other action undertaken. And I concede that some cannot be helped.

When a person is drunk or has an alcohol problem that person is unlikely to have proper insight into the condition. Destroying a career before helping the individual is not necessarily best practice.