QF pilot relieved of duty due to alleged alcohol intake above the PCA limits

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bodog

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Reported in the SMH -
[h=1]Qantas stops take-off and ejects pilot who had been drinking[/h] A QANTAS captain was forced to relinquish the controls of a passenger jet last week just minutes before it was due to take off from Sydney Airport after cabin crew suspected she had been drinking alcohol before the flight.
Qantas has since launched an investigation into the incident after the senior pilot recorded a positive reading for alcohol.
The captain has been withheld from operational duties on full pay, but the airline will not comment on what reading she gave or how recently before the flight she had been drinking.
The incident occurred last Monday as the Qantas aircraft was about to depart for Brisbane. Flight attendants on the Boeing 767-300 aircraft, which can carry 254 passengers, informed the airline's flight operations managers that they suspected the captain of the plane had been drinking.
The aircraft had already been pulled back from the domestic terminal and was taxiing towards a runway for take-off when Qantas management made the decision to stand down the captain from command of the plane.
The 767 returned to the domestic terminal where the captain was taken off the plane and a replacement pilot was found to fly to Brisbane.
It is rare for pilots to be removed from flying for breaching airline procedure. Qantas has a zero tolerance to pilots recording an alcohol reading of any level.
Fewer than 100 of Qantas's 2200 pilots are women.
The investigation into the captain's alcohol reading is expected to take at least a month. Qantas has informed the air safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, of the incident.
However, it is considered a matter for Qantas rather than the regulator because the testing of the captain was done under the auspices of the airline's drug and alcohol management plan. If it is determined to be a one-off incident, the pilot will be expected to undergo counselling and later a medical assessment to determine whether she is fit to fly.
But if it is a long-term problem, she will be suspended from duties.
CASA has been conducting random breath tests of pilots, flight attendants and ground crews at airports since 2008. The rate of positive tests is understood to be very low.
A Qantas spokesman confirmed that a captain had been ''withheld from service for administrative reasons'' last week but he declined to comment further because the matter was under investigation.
A spokesman for CASA said yesterday that it would not comment on any specific testing carried out by an airline, nor on the results of any test.
"Anyone found to be affected by alcohol or drugs while performing, or when they are available to perform, safety-sensitive aviation activities will automatically be suspended from duties," he said.
"They are not able to return to duty until they have been … given a medical clearance."

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Qantas stops take-off and ejects pilot who had been drinking
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

It is interesting to note that it was FA's who notified operation managers and not the FO
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

Guilty before proven? They have jumped the gun, if she is indeed proved to be innocent, her name and reputation will be smeared for the rest of her career.
 
Guilty before proven? They have jumped the gun, if she is indeed proved to be innocent, her name and reputation will be smeared for the rest of her career.

Given the comments etc I suspect a test was failed, hardly innocent on that basis.
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

I actually thought that it might have been a requirement as the pilot is checking in for duty they are breath tested every time.

I am visiting a client today and I might get a breath test.

All staff a breath tested everyday and some are tested after lunch as well.
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

I actually thought that it might have been a requirement as the pilot is checking in for duty they are breath tested every time.

I am visiting a client today and I might get a breath test.

All staff a breath tested everyday and some are tested after lunch as well.

Where do you work? Somewhere that doesn't trust its staff?
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

I actually thought that it might have been a requirement as the pilot is checking in for duty they are breath tested every time.

I am visiting a client today and I might get a breath test.

All staff a breath tested everyday and some are tested after lunch as well.
Fitness for work testing is very common these days and it has nothing to do with trust.


Sent from the Throne
I think you will find that CASA and Qantas both have separate and independent policies and random testing programs and it would be possible to get a random test from either at anytime. Having said that the probability of being selected for testing on any given day would be low.
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

Big thumbs up to the FAs who went through with this. Would not have been easy. In the end, everyone is safe, and that's the main thing.
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

Fitness for work testing is very common these days and it has nothing to do with trust.

Yep.
I used to have to do a alcohol breath test before every shift (0.000 reading) with manager to witness. Random urine tests were common too, at least twice a month. Didn't bother me, you get used to it. Plus, knowing that everyone was zero's, was actually a good thing.
 
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Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

As there will always be people who break the rules, the case demonstrates that the system works. All kudos to Qantas and its staff.
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

I guess the most surprising thing for me, that it is was a female pilot. I wonder what the whole story was? Guess we will really never know.
 
With a zero tolerance, the pilot should have known better, but... The grey areas are huge and we should be hesitant in passing judgement until all facts are known.

I have stood workers down after they have blown 0.01 on a site at 6am. Site rules, yes. Did they break the site rules? Yes. Would I have risked my life with these people in a car or any other area? Yes.

We need to keep in the back of our minds a few things.

1. The pilot broke the rules if in fact she blew greater than 0.00
2. Being under 0.05 is not illegal in Australia, however, QF have a zero tolerance policy and she broke it.
3. Blowing positive does not automatically mean you are drunk
4. In a small framed person, two glasses of wine after dinner, after 9pm will give a positive result until around 8am the following day (this is from some company guidelines to working on mine sites with zero tolerance)

More interesting to me is if this was residual BA from the night before, how did the FAs know? Is this a set up against the pilot by the FAs? Oh to have a listening device in her debrief room :)
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

Where do you work? Somewhere that doesn't trust its staff?

Where do you work?


It does depend on the workplace, but random or even systematic drug and alcohol testing is common in many work environments. Examples include mine sites and chemical operations.

When I was inducted to do case study work on a mine site for only a week, it was strongly reinforced to us that random alcohol and drug testing would be done and every single incident must be passed with zero reading. A first-time positive reading resulted in a suspension and a "strike" (the company had a "two strikes and you're out" policy). Everyone was then conscious of any drinking the night before, and avoiding eating poppy seed rolls from the local bakery.


Back on topic, I wonder how the FAs managed to tell Flight Ops of the fact they suspected the captain was drinking. I'd wonder if Ops digested that report and then said, "We're not taking a risk - we're pulling the flight back," or somehow they justified pulling it back on the balance of probabilities (the latter is unlikely). Furthermore, how did it only occur to the FAs to report the suspicion after the aircraft had been practically cleared to go and already pushed back and taxiing? (Thank goodness for the long taxi to that third runway!)

And, like munitalP how did they actually work out that it may be plausible that the captain had consumed alcohol?
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

maybe she thought the "9 before 9" rule applied to women as well?
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

With a zero tolerance, the pilot should have known better, but... The grey areas are huge and we should be hesitant in passing judgement until all facts are known.

I have stood workers down after they have blown 0.01 on a site at 6am. Site rules, yes. Did they break the site rules? Yes. Would I have risked my life with these people in a car or any other area? Yes.

We need to keep in the back of our minds a few things.

1. The pilot broke the rules if in fact she blew greater than 0.00
2. Being under 0.05 is not illegal in Australia, however, QF have a zero tolerance policy and she broke it.
3. Blowing positive does not automatically mean you are drunk
4. In a small framed person, two glasses of wine after dinner, after 9pm will give a positive result until around 8am the following day (this is from some company guidelines to working on mine sites with zero tolerance)

More interesting to me is if this was residual BA from the night before, how did the FAs know? Is this a set up against the pilot by the FAs? Oh to have a listening device in her debrief room :)
I agree with all of this post except item #2. Being over 0.0 is against CASA regulations.
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

Where do you work?

I work in an office. I know its different because we aren't put in charge of other peoples lives but we are trusted that we do not turn up for work under the influence of anything stronger than coffee. I've never worked in a job where staff have to be tested to prove they are fit to work so I'm asking about how it works.

I'm not sure I could work long-term for an employer that does not trust me but i understand some of you work in very different industries to me.
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

1. The pilot broke the rules if in fact she blew greater than 0.00

The article seems to suggest she blew a positive reading (i.e. greater than 0.00). On the premise that NoNews wouldn't be so brazen as to completely make up this fact (lest the repercussions of libel and defamation be great), I think it may be safe to conclude that she broke the rules.

If she really was 0.00 then this article is a sham. That requires a different level of retribution against the media company. Saying that, it wouldn't be the first time the media has made up fallacious and defamatory news so brazenly.

3. Blowing positive does not automatically mean you are drunk

This is not about drunkenness. Most companies have a policy of zero alcohol and drugs under the safety premise that it is not possible to determine the critical level of alcohol one can tolerate at any given time that will not result in impaired judgement, so the answer to this is to eliminate the risk.

Certainly with the heightened risks in the air and handling a machine as complex as an aircraft (yes, unlike Michael O'Leary would have you believe, aircraft are complex things and will remain to be for a long time to come!), I don't think it is unreasonable to expect that the contribution of risk to an error of judgement due to alcohol should be zero.

4. In a small framed person, two glasses of wine after dinner, after 9pm will give a positive result until around 8am the following day (this is from some company guidelines to working on mine sites with zero tolerance)

So to that small framed person - go easy on the alcohol or don't do it after 9pm.


As I said, for one site I went to, there was no room for excuse or explanation: more than 0.00 = suspension and a strike - no questions, no bargain. This was made infinitely clear to us during induction.


I appreciate that we shouldn't jump to a conclusive judgement on this woman before she handed one proper, but I'm failing to see some of the "huge grey areas" that you refer to.
 
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Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

More interesting to me is if this was residual BA from the night before, how did the FAs know? Is this a set up against the pilot by the FAs? Oh to have a listening device in her debrief room :)

That was my first thought: and why should it be necessary to highlight the fact that it was a woman pilot? I don't recall gender being important in any other comment on pilot wrongdoings (and yes, I recognise that it would almost certainly be assumed that a "pilot" means "male").
 
Re: Qantas pilot pulled from duty after drinking

2. Being under 0.05 is not illegal in Australia, however, QF have a zero tolerance policy and she broke it.

Yes it is, 0.02 is the legal limit for anyone doing a safety sensitive aviation activity (0.02 grams of alcohol in 210 litres of breath.)

And if your happy flying with a Pilot thats below 0.05, I suggest you have a read:

Four air carrier pilot volunteers were studied during eight simulated flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles in a Boeing 727-232 simulator. Two flights were conducted at each of four target blood alcohol levels, 0, 0.025, 0.050, and 0.075%. Each flight lasted about 1 h. Flights were conducted with full crews in a full simulated ATC environment. Data from direct observations and videotapes were used to examine discrete errors committed by the subjects. Total errors increased linearly and significantly with increasing blood alcohol. Planning and performance errors, procedural errors and failures of vigilance each increased significantly in one or more pilots and in the group as a whole. Failures of crew coordination were not associated with blood alcohol level. Serious errors increased significantly even at the lowest alcohol level studied, 0.025% (25 mg/dl), compared with control values.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2012569
 
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