What to do if your Captain is drunk?
‘Preliminary Study Confirms that Pilots Die at Younger Age Than General Population’ Evidence indicates that mortality is higher immediately after retirement and loss-of-license disability claims are linked to specific age-related causes say actuaries Ibrahim E. Muhanna, Chief Executive Officer and Actuary, OmniLife Overseas Insurance Co and Andreas Shakallis, Assistant Actuary ie Muhanna & Co. (1992)
While deaths in the general population increases slightly as age advances, among pilots there is a sudden and high peak around ages 55 –59.
Of course among the ‘complacent brigade’ will be a minority with power, who will say that this may come from the effects of flying and that’s your choice. This may be partly true – some airlines won’t allow pilots to fly over the north pole because of the health risks – but a proactive, health and safety conscious airline will also have its eye on the detrimental health effects of bullying, harassment, and intimidation as management strategies. They kill. I say this on good authority, “the strongest correlation between disability and age appeared in the psychiatric category. This suggests that stress and other psychological factors significantly affect pilot health with advancing age.” This statement is based on scientific evidence, not hearsay.
If an airline has an undue preponderence of drunken pilots I would draw the conclusion that stress and subsequent coping mechanisms ie alcoholism, are being demonstrated. It is a testimony to poor management. However, it is the pilot who will be penalized - it is the never the bully that pays.
Going back to a former post (Captain Stable) when I asked who should address the problems of stress and alcoholism you said, “the problem with that is that it will be painted in the press by everyone (specifically the more right-wing press, but also pointed that way by the employers) as overpaid, molly-coddled prima donna pilots wanting to work less for more pay.” This actuarial, evidence-based information refutes that.
What is the regulator doing about this? Despite criticism from the House of Lords Select Committee Fifth Report 2000 for its “woeful neglect” of aircrew health and its inertia, it still demonstrates the same old habit of ignoring urgent aircrew health issues. Unions came in for similar criticism in the same report.
Does your airline have an anti-bullying strategy in place? If not, what are your unions doing about that? It is no use blaming the Captain for being an alcoholic when the working conditions make this condition foreseeable and preventable. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee clearly blames the airlines, the regulators and the unions.