Originally Posted by
Slasher1
One has a duty to one's license, the regulatory authority, and the traveling public NOT to fly unfit. This is a rule and you bear accountability to the regulatory authority (who can not only pull your license but in some jurisdictions ultimately might be able to find a way to jail you) to follow it. This accountability isn't to CX but toward an entity who can (rightly) suspend or terminate your flying career across the board (at least in HKG).
That's that.
Perhaps the individual gets the benefit of the doubt in that he might have been confused, had his priorities misplaced, or not known how sick he really was. Don't know all the facts. And unless someone else told him what he had he might have been in that gray area where one feels kinda OK but kinda not -- at the end of the day you are the person who decides if you are well enough to fly. Others can tell you (from the outside) you might have a disqualifying condition but absent that only YOU can assess how you feel that particular day. Or perhaps he made a fairly gross error of judgment.
And if there was or is actual bona-fide coercion involved (in this or any other event), that should be documented and presented such that fines/CAD action levied up to and including AOC be suspended or revoked as appropriate.
Unless you are on POS 18, there is ZERO reason or incentive TO fly unfit (regardless of some potential interpretation of words in print by some manager somewhere). One has a large allocation (in an actual contract) of pay protected sick days. Granted, this may be easier to enforce in some jurisdictions (where it's fairly bulletproof) than others. But it is there. AND you are getting paid. So use it if it applies. It is the right thing to do.
I have little tolerance for people who whinge about conditions or intimidation and do nothing about it. Makes me wonder what kind of people they are. This relatively generous contractural guarantee is there in order TO prevent unfit pilots from creating unsafe situations--and is there to use.
People who need a job?
Unions are meant to sort this sort of intimidation out. But it's not happening in Hong Kong, is it.