London Flyer
I don't wish to be unkind, but to be honest, I don't think you have handled the situation in the best possible way. I admire your concern for the problem, your concern for your friend and what appears to be an honest desire to help the person concerned in a humane way.
I do not agree with a number of the other suggestions here, but hell, I don't hod the monopoly on wise or right decisions; like everyone else here, these are personal opinions and there will always be a difference of opinion.
My reasoning is as follows;
1. You do not work for the airline concerned and therefore as well-meaning as your intentions are to help your friend address the problem, it is not your direct responsibility. This is a dilemma she unfortunately has to resolve as she is a person of standing and trust in the airline and like it or not she has her own responsibilities to face. One could argue that you have a responsibility as a law abiding citizen to report any law breaker; i.e a burglar, drunk driver etc, however the primary responsibility to do something about this rests with those individuals that are directly involved in the situation. This encompasses those that fly with him and those that work in the same airline and are aware of the problem. As I said in my earlier post, if you know about it and do nothing then you are condoning the situation.
2. By calling the guy concerned you have put yourself in the firing line. I agree that there is no way he could influence your career with other airlines and if he could, those airlines would not be airlines you would want to work for and try and build a career with. As is becoming evident in this post, the guy concerned has a deep-seated problem. If what has been suggested is true, he has an almost defiant attitude about what he is doing, not to try and disguise the problem from other crew that will undoubtedly see him drinking and the bar staff at the regular hotel he stops at. This combined with his reaction to you trying to help him would probably indicate that his problem is out of control. Whilst there are agencies that can help such as AA, BALPA, CAA medical unit etc, these are really self-help kinds of assistance that rely on the individual first accepting he has a problem and recognising that he needs and more importantly wants help. When someone gets to that stage they are probably well on their way to recovery; this guy is far from that and yet continues to fly!
2. I fully agree with Flaps40; I know her and she is a very experienced and wise lady that has had the benefit of considerable cabin crew experience that allows her to stand up to even a hard-headed flight crew. She is however right, because this problem is clearly well-known in the airline and yet nobody has accepted their responsibility to do what they ought to do. Why should it fall upon her shoulders, just because she is concientious?
3. What does irk me is that this is widely known from what you say and everyone buries their head in the sand. Not acceptable. Especially not from a senior management pilot. Also, if everyone else knows, that means that every other captain in the airline and every other first officer that ever flew with the guy have spectacularly failed in their responsibility. End result is that the guy is still flying and should have been stopped a long time ago.
4. Attitudes like, 'if he won't go sick, I will' are not acceptable. You simply pass the buck to another F/O. 'Go sick and I will back you up, say you ate something', likewise pass the buck.
All those people here that read Pprune and work for the airline, probably know who it is and who LF is talking about. Time to wise up and if any one individual does't have the balls then do it collectively, and do it NOW! If this is true, then the guy concerned should be grounded right now. Not tomorrow, nor the next, but RIGHT NOW!
I hope you all have the courage to do what you should do. If you don't and something happens, then on your own individual consciences!