J430 it was a
LONG time ago in PNG.
It is also worth remembering that perhaps only 40 years ago it was deemed fairly acceptable in some quarters...the Military for instance had a different view of alcohol and flying then than now. How long is it since Air France pilots stopped having wine with their in flight meals...I'd be surprised if it is 10 years.
I am not suggesting I have seen people, or flown with people who turned up to work reeking of booze or unsteady on their feet...
far from it...but when someone starts the day 'normal' and as the day progresses gets bad tempered not to mention the sweats and shakes, you know there is a problem. When management are fully conversant with 'the problem' and you're a new employee you just let the system work...and it has worked and continues to work.
I would suggest these days the problem is miniscule...a vanishingly small % for booze and I personally have never known of a pilot on recreational drugs. The system has weeded them out over time...the last of the dinosaurs so to speak. Society has changed too...what was acceptable in the long past is no longer deemed to be so.
This ruling is just a knee jerk reaction to the Cherokee 6 crash at Hamo...it is an expensive 'fix' for a near non existant problem.
NASA studies show quite clearly that a pilot at the end of an all night ultra longhaul flight
can display impairment
equivalent to having a BAC in excess of the driving limit.
The authorities don't seem keen, or even vaguely interested, to get anywhere near that problem but instead pass silly laws like this one...what is wrong with this picture
What % of aircraft accidents have booze as a contributing factor...I don't think I have EVER heard of one...what about fatigue?