Is it wise to be seen drinking in uniform?
Dear Moderator,
I had difficulty in deciding which forum this should go in. You may wish to redirect this thread.
On a trip I took last week was a positioning crew in uniform. Prior to doors closing the positioning Captain was having a chat with his company colleagues on the F/D. Whilst doing so he took off his jacket as well as the stripes on his shirt and then proceeded to take a seat in the cabin. During the short flight he consumed two small bottles of wine. Now, I happen to know that he had more than 12 hours to go before reporting for duty, so his drinking a small amount of wine is not the issue here. What did strike me though was whether, with all the negative headline publicity about drinking pilots these days, this was a wise course of action? The fact was that despite his efforts to “de-uniform” himself once on board, most of the pax had already seen him in full uniform at the gate. Can you imagine if this had been seen by a Sun reporter (or reader for that matter)! Had he not been in uniform he would not have attracted any attention to himself. Why do crews have to position in uniform when many hours away from starting duty?