cockney steve
even if you're BELOW the LIMIT, you can still be prosecuted for being impaired!
The circumstances in which that could happen must, if they exist, be very rare.
eg If a pilot had some physiological intolerance to alcohol which was so acute that any amount, even miniscule, impaired his ability to perform his aviation function.
The opposite is the more likely of the two situations -
A pilot may be prosecuted if his blood/alcohol level exceeds the prescribed limit even if there is no evidence that it actually impaired his ability to perform his aviation function.
If the limit of permissible Blood-Alcohol does define "impairment"
It doesn't.
I can't remember any accident in commercial aviation, caused by alcohol intoxication.....
That's not surprising.
The ATSB recently arranged for a thorough research of its accident and incident database to determine the prevalence and nature of drug and alcohol related accidents and incidents in Australian civil aviation. It looked at all occurrences in which drugs or alcohol were recorded between 1 January 1975 and 31 March 2006.
The research found that, in just over
31 years, there were only
22 alcohol-related incidents.
It should, of course, be borne in mind:
- That not all the accidents/incidents were caused by pilot error. (The research didn't differentiate.)
- That even where the accident/incident was caused by pilot error, it does it does not necessarily follow that alcohol either caused or even contributed to the error.
FL