defpotec

Does that mean that there might be a opening at SWA?

Slice

That's pretty funny, d!ck.

Pilot41

He might lose his job, but he'll beat the rap.

Dane Bramage

In accordance with SWA criteria, he will not lose his job. He will undergo a "medical evaluation" during his leave period, but .042 is the "you are fired, no questions asked" criteria.

It will be interesting to see the Feds try to criminally prosecute someone who did not violate a Federal statute or regulation (i.e., .04). The America West guys were both over the Florida legal limit of .08 and (correct me if I'm wrong) had already pushed back from the gate.

BTW, Utah's impaired limit is .10 according to the articles I read.

Fly4hire

Perhaps he will keep his job, but he needs serious help. While backwards BAC calculations may not count in court, a reality check is in order.

www.ru****ed.com has a very good BAC calculator. (that's p i s s e d)

In order to blow .039 this pilot would have had to drink 10 regular beers 12 hrs prior to the breathalizer (for a 5'11'' 150 lb 35yr old male), or 7 beers 8hrs prior and so on.

Anyone who would drink to this degree prior to transporting passengers has a problem with alcohol.

In the military, besides the 12 hrs rule, we also had to be free from the residual effects of alcohol. Don't know about you all, but even if this pilot had drank a 6 pack 12 hrs prior and blown 0.0 BAC I doubt he would have been free from the residual effects

Also food for thought is that even with a 0.0 BAC if there is an incident/accident you can count on the feds doing a liver enzyme blood (and other) tests, and alcohol consumption will most definately be admitted as a factor if it was there.

I'm not a teetotaler by any means, but there is a quite a bit of alcohol consumption that while perhaps legal per the letter of the law, borders on abuse, and could possibly jepordize your career if you happen to have a bad day.

Cass

Very good commentary,
How do they regulate in the military?

rickair7777

They don't. A senior officer might tell a junior officer to go home if looked really bad, but it's basically up to the individual. All military members have random drug screening, but I don't think any of the services do alcohol screening...anyone with a military background must be laughing as hard as I am at the very thought of that!


I think the FAR's also say that you must be "free from the effects" but there's no real objective way to measure that so it's just guidance for the individual. But you might not want to be overheard by a fed on a line check talking about how "I am so f@*#ing hungover"...

Cass

Did you fly military before?

rickair7777

Only flew briefly, got a medical DQ for vision early in the pipeline (before PRK was available). Stayed in the navy, did other things which included a lot of airplane and helo rides, and forward air control work, so I'm intimately familiar with the natops world.

scarface

I've RON'd at a few hotels where SWA crews stay and have never seen any of them over indulge alchohol. I don't think there's any corporate mentality of encouraging alchohol abuse. It just might boil down to individ
ual responsibility. Nah, that's too radical a concept.