I never said that I would ever LET these guys go flying while bombed! I just said that the first course of action I would take would be to make a strong "suggestion" that they take a 24hr sabbatical. If they insisted--I would be at the front of the line to go to a higher authority.
I've been forced into this situation before. As a supervisor, I saw a serious transgression taking place. I kindly suggested that the action be stopped as I felt it was seriously out of the area of "discussable issues" (not booze, but serious threat to flight safety and the company's O.C.). When I was told to go and fornicate myself for the third time, I said "Fine" and went to MY boss and told the story. I even offered to apologize if I was out of line in my judgement. The result was obvious. The flight was stopped. The offender took two weeks off and didn't speak to me for about a year, but in the end he calmed down and pulled in his horns.
Like I said before; it have been NICE if the rent-a-cop had made a friendly suggestion, but considering the fact that the Capt involved had given him a whole lot of grief over the coffee, and the possibility that he had problem with drinking and driving, I can certainly see why he just didn't bother.
