How many times does it have to be pointed out the self righteous brigade that being 'over the limit' and being 'drunk' are two very different situations. You can be 'over the limit' but not 'drunk'. Whilst not condoning anyone who turns up for work whilst still 'over the limit', there is often a big difference between that and being a staggering drunk as the tabloids and media like to make out.
The limit for technical flight crew here in the UK is one quarter of the road legal limit. I have no doubt that there are many pontificators on here who will have at some stage in their righteous lives driven a motor vehicle after having had a drink at a restaurant say and been perfectly sober and well within the legal limit and certainly not drunk. That same person though would probably have been over the limit for operating an aircraft yet they were still not drunk. The media would no doubt make them out to be tottering slobs, barely able to stand up.
There are too many posters on here who are unable to differentiate between the two states and end up being as hypocritical as the media when discussing this sort of thing. The schadenfreude exhibited by those posters makes me cringe when they know perfectly well that a tiny minority of aircrew have been over the limit and been caught. They were punished several times over, both in their private lives and publicly. Quite a few of them, whilst technically over the limit were certainly not drunk.
Yes, there will no doubt be other cases from time to time but the numbers are miniscule when compared with many other safety related jobs. No doubt the 'holier than thou' brigade will once again jump on the bandwagon when the next pilot that is caught 'over the limit' and will of course dredge up old statistics to try and make up that it is somehow a common problem whereas in reality the numbers are miniscule.
I now wait for the inevitable chorus of outrage and accusations, (wrongly) that I somehow condone drinking and flying as long as you are not caught. Just remember that you can be 'over the limit' but not impaired by being drunk before some of you cast hypocritical accusations.