At least B757-200, if his other posts are any indication, may have the mitigation of being just a schoolboy. Others who were so quick to suggest or imply the pilot was guilty don’t appear to have any such excuse. (See Bronx post #132 for a selection of comments.)
Some may just have posted without thinking what they were saying; others clearly have a chip on their shoulder, or both shoulders.
fyank1 has only ever posted on two threads: This one and the recent Manchester American Airlines thread. If you want to see what sort of person he is, read his previous posts. They include this gem, after we learnt the pilot wasn't guilty:
“The law as it stands clearly cannot protect the public from drunken pilots ……….
Mandatory breath testing for all operating commercial pilots now needs to be introduced to protect the travelling public. 
“
bjcc (responding to Bronx):
"Where are those with a chip on their shoulder? Or is it your assumption because some people don't get down on their knees and worship pilots, they must have an issue with them?”
Chips?
"some people don't get down on their knees and worship pilots"
I see no chips. 
SOPS and others have asked if there is any legal “comeback” if there has been a malicious allegation.
In theory, yes. In practice, it would be very difficult if not impossible to prove a report was malicious.
We’ll never know if the security guard in this instance was being honest or malicious. If he said he thought he could smell alcohol, it would be impossible to disprove.
We’ve got used to people who claim pilots were guilty, even when they’ve turned out not to be. There’s a new phenomenon in recent posts.
Nov71, who started the thread with news that the pilot had been arrested and for some reason chose to add “On board presumably to avoid the 'I was just reporting sick ' defence" now feels the need to say: “That is some serious diet if his breath smelt of 'alcohol'. The fact that it was a prolonged low carb diet leads to the hope that it was being regularly monitored by a medical doctor.”
QDM joins him with: “That is some diet! Good idea to fly when on that kind of extreme regime?”
IMHO, it’s a pity they can’t just be happy for the Captain.
If journalists reported he’d been cleared and then made comments like those, they’d be criticised.
FL
Last edited by Flying Lawyer; 8th Apr 2007 at 20:22.