Fly IFR

Instead of arguing your opinion, why don't you just look it up and get the facts for yourself?

Zoot Suit

He got it right. You did not.

What part of this "sickness"(rolls eyes) says "After I drink alcohol because I can't help myself I MUST get behind the wheel of a car or behind the controls of an airplane"? You wanna drink yourself drunk, go ahead, I don't care. Getting up and strapping yourself to a machine ain't part of the "sickness", it's a crime.

Let's hope so

You got that right

Flutter

Not exactly. If you blow higher than a .15 or refuse the test, you medical application is deferred to Oke City. Does that mean you automatically lose your medical? No. If you did blow, and you blew high, your medical is likely to be revoked. If you refuse the test, you must successfully jump through some hoops to have your medical issued. And if you blow less than .15, your AME is authorized to make a decision without a deferral.

Having said all that, yes, by all means, call a cab.

There is certainly such thing as alcohol addiction. Call it a disease, or a behavior, or whatever you like. It's semantics and it's irrelevant. Those with an addiction to alcohol are at risk of losing EVERYTHING, hurting themselves, hurting others. And it's not because they are bad people. It's a complicated, multi-faceted problem which is not well understood.

USMCFLYR

Agree with many of the things that you are saying here Boomer - but if you could see that the brain chemistry (something you can see and track) is different in an addict and if you can see the brain and the body act differently when stimulated with a substance would it make a difference to you? The difference here that many may be getting hung up on is that this disease can be controlled at stated earlier and that control CAN BE in the hands of the person once they get help and started down that road to recovery (thus a person's behavior can play a bigger part).

USMCFLYR

Windsor

My parents raised me the "right way". Didnt help much. I still became a pilot.

I have a hard time calling it a disease as well, but I am not going to knock it. People much smarter than I have come up with that term for it. But like all diseases, alcoholism does not discriminate. It does not matter who it effects. You can raise your kids the right way, teach them the responsible way, but thats all you can do. You cant sit over their shoulder for the rest of their life saying "dont drink." They may get to college, have some really great times drinking and decide on their own they love it. They keep at it hard enough, long enough, guess what happens? Alcoholism.

I read in a big book once that "addicts and alcoholics do not have a normal off switch in their brains. A normal person will put their hand on a hot stove and never touch it again. Addicts and alcoholics will continue to touch the hot stove." For pilots, that means continued drinking despite negative consequences. Get one dui under your belt, or one public intox or one alcohol related arrest and if you continue to drink, you are putting your hand on that hot stove. While they may not be a full blown, cant stop at one drink, alcoholic, they have a drinking problem that needs treatment.

rickair7777

I'll grant you the disease for the part where you can't control yourself and keep drinking.

But not so much for the part where you wake up the next morning, shave, shower, but on a uniform and take the van to the airport.

Al Czervik

It is obvious that the individuals here that understand the disease is a disease are educated about it. Those that don't belive its a disease have little to no information/education on the subject. They are simply tossing out judgement. It's APC though. Carry on.....

Hetman

There is a difference between alcoholism and irresponsibility.

I know of a pilot of a well known regional airline who was a self acknowledged alcoholic, had sought treatment and who had successfully maintained complete abstinence for years. Then one day the van driver reported alcohol on his breath after driving him to the airport for a late afternoon show. He was tested and blew way over.

I do not know the circumstances behind this latest incident in OMA. None of us knows whether the problem was /is clinical alcoholism or just a case of partying too hard for too long the night before. If the former case it is good that he will now get the help he needs; if the latter he will get a harsh lesson.

But none of us knows which is the case and none of us is in a position to make judgements with regard to why this pilot ended up in the situation in which he now finds himself.

mooney

For the first 35 years of my life, I would have told you a pedophile was a sick individual who deserved to be beheaded at all costs. Then for the last 2 years of seeing commercials of major corporations marketing short shorts that say "sexy" across the ass to 12 year olds and panties in the pre teen department at major department stores that are lace and say "sexy" or some other sexual innuendo, I think some of these guys might actually have a "society made me do it" halfway legit defense. See next response for "the gene"

This remark goes along with brain mapping/chemistry. Hotmama pilot, if someone commits murder while on a doctor prescribed prescription drug, and blames the drug, would you say he's full of crap? I would have personally found him guilty and given him the chair until I saw what happened to my grandfather one night. He was a Marine in the Pacific in WWII. He had a massive stroke and about a year later when a new dr changed his meds, the first night he went to bed after the new medication he went to the kitchen and got a large butcher knife and put it on the bedstand next to him. When asked why he did that, his response was "tha Japs are coming I saw some of thier snipers across the yard" and other war-hallucinations, 50 years after the war! Had the wrong individual entered the house, or a family member at the wrong time, oops! So he didn't have "disease" but was on a legal substance that made him act the way he did. If I'm ever on a jury now and some veteran claims his meds made him kill someone, well I light have some reasonable doubt now after seeing it firsthand...

BLEEDBLACKNGOLD

I flew with this guy about 4 years ago. He was my FO. He was (and still is) incompetent. You are wasting your breathe blaming alcoholism and are wasting efforts of sympathy. He was the hated guy through the base. He deserves 100% what happened to him. I'm glad it didn't involve passengers or other innocent people.

People get weeded out in this industry if you don't make the cut (1 way or another). I can honestly say I feel no sympathy for him. I sat next to him in the cockpit. It is a shame that clowns like this need to ruin the image of the pilot. Pretty sure the regionals have had it bad enough in the public view lately without having this clown act like a 14 year old idiot. Best of luck