Pilot arrested in Calgary, charged with being impaired before takeoff Sunwing plane
 

Pilot arrested in Calgary, charged with being impaired before takeoff
Sunwing plane


Cops say a pilot was found slumped unconscious in the cockpit of a Mexico-bound Boeing 737 at Calgary's airport Saturday, with a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit.

Staff Sgt. Paul Stacey of the Calgary police traffic section said the 37-year-0ld Slovakian national, in Canada on a work visa, boarded the Sunwing aircraft with 99 passengers and five other crew members aboard just after 7 a.m., and his behaviour was unusual enough that the airport gate crew notified the co-pilot.

"The co-pilot went and found the pilot in the cockpit, presumably preparing for the pre-flight.

We were called and then we took that pilot into custody," he said.

"He was showing signs of impairment, enough so that the gate crew were concerned and then they found him actually slumped over in the pilot's seat." Stacey said the pilot, the flight's captain, was removed and taken to the traffic office to be tested. The veteran cop said he still registered an "extreme level" of impairment some two hours after he was ushered off the plane.

However, despite the pilot's condition, Stacey said it's unlikely the pilot would have had the chance to take off.

"It had all the potential for a disaster ... but the likelihood of a pilot on a major airline like this actually being able to take off when they're impaired like that is pretty slim because there's a lot of checks and balances," he said.

"Obviously this one had a very significant potential to cause great harm had the pilot actually been allowed to fly this plane."
In a statement, Sunwing said the plane took off a short time later with another captain, bound for stops in Regina and Winnipeg before jetting south to Cancun.

"We are very appreciative of our crew’s diligence in handling this very unfortunate matter," the statement read, in part.

"We are very apologetic for any upset that this has caused and would like to assure our customers that safety remains our utmost priority."

Stacey said the pilot has been charged with having care and control of an aircraft while being impaired, and having care and control of an aircraft while over the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08. His name has not yet been released pending an appearance before a justice of the peace.However, Stacey noted he may face further charges from Transport Canada.

"I fully expect that there will be additional charges," he said.

Transport Canada could not be reached for comment Saturday.



Pilot arrested in Calgary, charged with being impaired before takeoff | Calgary



Now, do you think Sunwing might be looking for a Canadian pilot that doesn't drink?

Whats even more disturbing is this guy is a foreign national on a work visa, displacing Canadian pilots who are looking for work. Send them all back.

Time to end the TFW program and let the many qualified Canadians fly.

Shame on Sunwing for employing foreign pilots when there are many Canadian pilots who could do the job. This should be seen by all exactly what it is ; a major embarrassment for Sunwing. A drunken foreigner at the controls... , one wonders what other skeletons there are in the closet...?

Agree, the US, Europe and rest of the world should send back all the Canadians working there, stealing jobs from the locals.
Wondering how that would balance out:rolleyes:

You're misinformed on the issue here.

Name an airline where a systemic misrepresentation of the labour market has occurred and been exploited and Canadians are working without a license and status.

There are not Canadians without some sort of status (ie.Greencard) and an FAA license flying for US airlines. Guaranteed.

Sunwing is an embarrassment.

The posts above talk about foreign pilots in general, stealing jobs from qualified Canadians ones, not a specific program

Just as Canadian pilots steal jobs from locals when working abroad.

You say without a license, you say he is a fake pilot?
Without status? One poster above says "working visa", you know, kind of like the green card.

I know of at least one European company that employed Canadian pilots because they were cheaper than locals, on a validation. Was that ok?

Glad you can guarantee for all the Canadians all over the world;)

And anyway, the thread was about a drunken pilot, what his nationality has to do with it?
Or are you saying that Canadians do not drink?

Flydive, you need to get the facts straight on "Scumwig"and the breaches of all normal international licence protocols, Transport Canada have been cut out of all flight testing of these guys, they need to go public and put their jobs on the line to fix this problem. Last year I had to divert due to one of these idiots who managed to get lost on an airport with only two runways, I wish I could obtain the tape, level four English was way above there guys! In the mean time, Happy New Year!

Hope he's deported

"37-year-0ld Slovakian national, in Canada on a work visa". Great. Second rate pilots and questionable maintenance. Why would you fly with them?

I'm talking about this one. Sunwing. LMOs. TFWs. FLVCs.

It's a sham. It's a misrepresentation of the labour market in Canada.

Where. You want specifics? Name it.

He doesn't have a Canadian license. Name one (other than Canada) industrialised nation who allow pilots to fly their airliners without their license. Not US. Not EU. Not Australia. Not New Zealand. Not Hong Kong.

No it's not "kind of like a green card", or as we call the equivalent in Canada "permanent resident" LMOs and TFWs are meant for where there is an acute shortage of workers (Citizens or PRs) in a specialised, specific field... That is not the case in Canada.

Where? Without EASA licenses?

Having worked in Canada on the TFW programme and now a Canadian P.R. with a T.C. ATPL I can see both sides of the argument. Having said that, I think the domestic Canadian pilots are right. Canadian carriers should employ and train up their own pilots.

The seasonal flow of pilots to/fro Europe may help the balance sheet for the TUI group but it's not fair. In Summer Canadian pilots are "taking jobs" from UK & EU pilots during their company exchanges. Incidentally, some Canadian pilots have also had too much single malt in the UK as well.

May I propose a compromise that the Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Org. (cfmo.org) is suggesting:
As the name suggests, a core Commonwealth countries open market for law abiding people. Similar laws, cultures, ancestry, history, values, religion and outlook on life.
A member of the Canadian cabinet told the BBC last Summer; "we're family" as the Brexit woes were being discussed. I think this idea is slowly gaining traction.

Flydive,

The difference is that, when I go work in another country I am required to obtain the local license. When I moved to New Zealand I earned a CPL by writing the exams and doing the flight test - just as any pilot has to do when abroad. I also applied for and obtained a work permit. Therefore, I earned and paid for the right to work in New Zealand. This is the same for most countries around the world.

The difference is that the FLVC (of which I obtained when moving back home prior to converting my licenses) is that no flight test or work permit is required. Simply a logbook, a license and a pulse - and not necessarily in that order.

I don't think anyone here would have issue with a foreign pilot working for a Canadian carrier where they hold the required Canadian license and permits.

But...you cannot blame the pilot. They're simply playing the game. It is TC who needs the wake up call.

In this case thoug, we also have a fellow pilot who obviously needs help. I don't care where he/she is from - I hope they find the help they need, but I suspect it's too little, too late. Just stay at the hotel and call in sick - way better to have that conversation with the CP than the one this pilot is having now.

This all seems to divide into two parts. First the fact that a fellow pilot seems to have broken his professional responsibility by attempting to fly impaired. This is very serious and inevitably shines a negative light on all of us, however unjustified. The Calgary police, Sunwing and Travel Service will need to investigate and make sure that the systems in place to catch this type of thing functioned properly and that it wasn't just dumb luck that this pilot didn't get the chance to endanger the public.

The second issue is that this is a foreign pilot operating on a LVC. Clearly Slovakians are no more likely to suffer from alcoholism than native Canadians. Sunwing is employing approximately 100 European pilots this winter on a combination of wet leases and on LVCs. This is in reciprocity to the 150-160 Canadians that operated in Europe on wet leases in 2016.

For the record, all pilots operating on LVCs undergo a full company groundschool, simulator and TC PPC. To Clunkdriver, no, TC has not been cut out of the loop. The candidates use an approved syllabus and are PPC'ed by the same A checks, with the same oversight, as Canadians.

I have no doubt that you encountered poor RT from a Sunwing crew. I have heard some poor RT from lots of ESL pilots who carry a Canadian passport. Hell, I've heard lots of poor RT from mono-lingual anglo speakers.

Canadians can't operate in Europe on an LVC, we used to be able to, but no longer. This means that the wet lease is the only option open to us. From an immigration standpoint, Sunwing pilots sometimes have to get work permits from the country in which we are based and sometimes not. All depends on where. Over 100 where issued to us over the summer. If we don't maintain this reciprocity, over 100 Canadians will be laid off in the summer.

From a quality of life stand point, it is better for the Sunwing pilot group to bring these pilots to Canada under an LVC as opposed to a wet lease. This way every European slots in under the most junior Canadian. This also means that many more basing options are open to Canadians instead of having a wet leased airplane based in the city you desire.

The Winston

The same principles that let you work in other countries allow foreign pilots to work in Canada where the standards are sometimes less than they are in other countries each of whom will swear that their standards are the best.

Pilots are human beings and odds are out of a 1,000 drivers on the road at any time, there will be a handful on the road impaired.

The number of pilots that actually get caught impaired is only a fraction of those who fly impaired and are never caught, unless of course, you are so drunk that its obvious to anyone and everyone, forgetting of course the security in Indonesia that let an obviously impaired pilot who staggered past security.

To +TRSA
 

I think your information is incorrect, and trust me I know as I worked very closely with this company from the regulator perspective...you guess my role!

The agreement between SWG and TVS is a reciprocal agreement where they share pilots seasonally. It has been going on for years as far back as he Sky days. I agree it has fallen off the rails, however this is many pay grades above TC who regulates the industry. If a pilot shows up at the sim and has a FLVS, we ensure he passes our system. In many cases training programs need amending to accommodate this, i.e. the Germans do not do upset training, hence it's built into their training prior to a PPC. and yes, again misinformed, they must complete a training program and PPC before touching a Canadian A/C. If it's a wet lease, that is a different issue.

As stated here by a wise man, Canadians are flying all over the world, so to say we won't have it here is simply is not going to happen. Wasn't this thread about pilots abusing the drinking rules? Let's face it, this guy paints us all in a bad light (also pointed out here), however we all have a duty and care with our own life's especially when we are at work as professionals.

It's the knee jerk reaction that simply is an attempt to make the travelling public safe again that makes our profession jump through hoops for little to no measurable gain. The Minister, Marc Garneau has now imposed that by Feb 15, 2017 every 705 carrier in Canada must provide a process that ensures their pilots are "fit to fly" REALLY! What's next? The Chief pilot must visit every cockpit to ensure they are, "Fit to Fly". Wait for it folks, it's coming to your household, regulation that states, you must ensure every family member it fit to drive prior to giving them the keys....

I thought once we got rid of Lisa Raitt with her two crew members in the flight deck debacle and getting an actual pilot as Minister, we'd have some sort of sanity...I'm wrong again....

As for our drunk friend he will never fly in Canada ever...assuming his own company and country will do the same.

Happy flying