As you have detected BA’s disciplinary code with regard to alcohol doesn’t leave much of any wriggle room (rightly or wrongly)....yet funnily enough just a month ago BA were running an internal campaign labelled as a “Mental Awareness Week” to (rightly) encourage us all to be more understanding of certain health issues that can impact on any of us at anytime...yet even so it looks like some mental health problems are more acceptable than others.
I have been retired some years now so the policy may have changed but the last time I had any dealings with management when I had concerns that a captain had an alcohol problem I was told that BA helped those who came to the attention either by asking for help or being confronted directly if an individual had been brought to their attention. The help was in the form of the individual being sent to a clinic to dry out and retained their employment status. It was done in full co-operation with the CAA. There was no second chance. Similar help was offered to both flight and cabin crew.
I was also told that if it came to the attention of BA through cases such as Julian Monaghan's where the issue was splashed all over the press then dismissal was inevitable. The justification for that is arguable given that alcoholism is an illness.
It is beyond me personally how some people just cannot stay away from booze for a limited time like if they were addicts, especially in the face of risking the career or worse. He made it into BA, into a 777 flight deck, and then this.
If it was a case of just careless drinking I would agree. If it is alcoholism then the individual is indeed an 'addict'.
However, media treatment of the case with picturing the poor chap in handcuffs is just appalling.
Loss of career, time in jail and the utterly humiliating and disgraceful coverage from the Daily Mail and others.
The article refers to a 'pilot's dosshouse' when it is common knowledge within BA that there are several rooms available in well run, fully serviced houses set up for precisely the sort of need pilot's have, for a variety of reasons, for short term, comfortable and quiet rest facilities.