Originally Posted by
ph-sbe
Indeed it is. True alcoholism is the manifestation of addiction to alcohol. Which can indeed be medically treated. Suffering from this medical condition does not warrant LOL, merely a temporarily suspension of ones medical certificate.
Knowingly flying while suffering from a medically disqualifying condition however, is another thing. And that is an offense which is criminally punishable.
I've been diagnosed with pre-diabetes recently, and haven't flown since. Until I lose ~30 pounds and get my a1c levels under control, my medical certificate isn't worth the ink it was printed with. That does not mean I'm being punished; I'm (and others on the ground are) being protected from myself. Should I go out and fly, I would knowingly put others in danger. Which in turn, as it should, is a criminal offense.
He was 0.02. That's less than one standard drink. Most people wouldn't be able to tell they were 0.02 that time of the morning unless they self-tested. A reasonable assumption is he miscalculated the alcohol breakdown time which could be the result of several factors. Obviously pilots should give themselves sufficient buffer, but I think such small exceedances should be understood for what they are. It's entirely reasonable to expect that by the time the plane was ready for pushback alcohol would have been undetectable in his blood. I've worked on worksites where blood alcohol wasn't measured; instead computer tests for reaction time, responsiveness and awareness were required. If those tests were not passed, the person had the option not to report for work, and not be subject to invasive testing. Repeated events would require compulsory councilling. This organisation operating in very hazardous environments has one of the best safety performance outcomes in the world. It would be interesting to see pilot failure rates under that kind of testing regime, because that would also catch fatigue. A bad night's sleep is going to give you the same kind of delayed reaction time and negatively impacted attention focus as 0.02. It's far less problematic for airlines to use the blunt hammer of blood alcohol testing and not test for fatigue, while the companies making money by providing testing equipment and related consumables are very happy to promote their costly technologies. It's always bothered me that one among many causal aspects gets tested while easily testable functional capability is not tested. There are no consumables required in what is extremely reliable computer-based functional testing which has broader reaching safety benefits.