Hi Ryan The penalty for being drink on an aircraft is severe if a case is proved in court. A maximum fine of £5000 and/or 2 years in prison in the UK. That relates to the first part of the ANO. This would also apply to a crew member and on top of that we would loose our job and Pilot's would loose their licence
With regard to your question re Part 2 also picked up by
Bullethead. Crew being able to walk in a straight line is not indicitive of our fitness to operate!! We are not allowed to be a "bit pissed or a bit drugged" despite what you may see on Mile High or read in Air Babylon
Drugs (the illegal kind) are a complete no go area. If we are on prescribed medication of any kind we have to flag this up to our medical dept who will decide whether we are fit to fly.
With regard to alchohol we can fly with a limit of 0.2mgs/ml. That is a quater of the drink drive limit. In addition we are not allowed to drink for a minimum number of hours before operating so the chances of us reaching this miniscule level are remote. We are also not allowed to drink on standby's and positioning flights.
Back to pax being drunk
F3G makes a very interesting point stating he has never seen a drunk in business or first but still thinks there are some.
As crew we have no way of knowing if we have drunks on board until they cause a problem and that is in whatever class. Even in the rowdiest of stag parties there is usually one of them who is sober enough to know if they don't tone it down on boarding they won't fly.
I have a very simple approach to problems on the ground......they stay on the ground if either the ground staff or crew can identify them!
Unfortunatly if they don't show themselves until the cruise then it can become a real issue for everyone. Don't really know what the answer is on that one?