F/O fails breathalyzer test at AMS

[DIBO]

This morning at Schiphol, a 26yo FO was removed from his plane by airport police after failing a breathalyzer test at 0.73 promille (legal limit 0.2). Paid 5000€ fine and was later released to return as a pax. Unidentified (for the moment) foreign airline.

[Count of Monte Bisto]

That is going to end very badly - tears a bedtime I imagine.

[Airbubba]

Maybe he got an interline discount but looks like the fine at AMS for drunk FO's at AMS is less than a couple of years ago:

Drunk co-pilot arrested at Schiphol airport

By Janene Pieters on May 11, 2015 - 11:04

A co-pilot who was under the influence of alcohol was arrested at Schiphol airport on Sunday morning.

NOS reports that the man was about to board a plane that he planned to fly. The aviation police and marechaussee, military police, checked the man after receiving a tip.

They quickly realized that the man had been drinking as his breath smelled strongly of alcohol. A breath test showed that the man had 375 ug/l alcohol in his blood - well above the maximum allowed amount of 90 ug/l.
The man flies for a foreign airline. He received a 15 hours flight ban and a 6 thousand euro fine.

Drunk co-pilot arrested at Schiphol airport | NL Times (http://nltimes.nl/2015/05/11/drunk-co-pilot-arrested-schiphol-airport)

[Tinstaafl]

How does one comply with a 15 hour flight ban? "Oh, was going to fly for 3.5 hours today, and yesterday I had intended to fly 4 hours - but didn't fly at all - so that leaves only 7.5 hours left to not fly."

[cappt]

So young to throw it away. Any word on the carrier?

[PENKO]

If he's from a civilized country he'll be offered rehab and reintegration into his airline.

[Skyjob]

Or advised to voluntary take the exit from the stage before investigation ruins life...

[Loose rivets]

I would have thought rather than destroy all his work, becoming teetotal for say, two years, and then reapplying might be sufficient. But this is with the condition the zero alcohol lifestyle is forever.

It's got a lot to do with what his blood shows in the longer term analysis. If it was a one-off lapse, that's very different from hiding an even moderate problem.

Believe me, this is a subject close to my heart. When I could stand it no more I stormed out of a very good job because of being forced to fly with an alcoholic . . . or two. And I mean shouted at to get back on the job.

It would have been hard not to have a drink or two after a long day back then, but so many were long term heavy drinkers.

"I wanted to think, so I gave up alcohol." Richard Feynman.

[B2N2]

26? Sounds like a party gone astray....
Little too young to have a career induced drinking problem.

[MathFox]

Maybe he got an interline discount but looks like the fine at AMS for drunk FO's at AMS is less than a couple of years ago:

Drunk co-pilot arrested at Schiphol airport | NL Times (http://nltimes.nl/2015/05/11/drunk-co-pilot-arrested-schiphol-airport)

Fines for DUI in the Netherlands depend on the amount of alcohol in your blood. The first officer in this thread was under 0.8 promille, while the officer in 2015 was slightly over the 0.8.

And for the flying ban you're fine if you stay out of the cockpit for that number of hours since the breath-check.

[Fire and brimstone]

If he's from a civilized country he'll be offered rehab and reintegration into his airline.

So you don't think he will be asked to report to his company HQ, the resignation letter placed in front of him, and he is asked to sign it??

OK.

[Landflap]

Who has five grand sloshing about in order to pay an "on the spot" fine ? Very envious. When I was a FO, I owed, about five grand ; never had it sloshing about. Maybe his employer stumped up the fine to get him back . What happens at AMS if you don't have five grand in your back pocket or the employer fails to come up with the cash ?

[Airbubba]

Who has five grand sloshing about in order to pay an "on the spot" fine ?

These AMS alcohol impairment fines seem to be creeping up over the years.

Drunken airline pilot detained before flying plane
Amsterdam authorities find captain's blood-alcohol level four times the legal driving limit.

Wednesday, Jan 26, 2000 04:00 PM EST J.A. Getzlaff

He was on a movable passageway when security officers at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport spotted him: a Moroccan man in a pilot’s uniform, who appeared to be having trouble walking. They stopped him, and he indicated that he was heading for the departure lounge and his Royal Air Maroc flight back to Morocco.

Since he was to be the plane’s captain, military police at the airport asked him to take a breath test. The pilot objected, but when the cops refused to let him go, he eventually agreed. His blood-alcohol level measured four times the legal driving limit for Holland, according to a BBC report.

The pilot’s response? Slurring, he asked to be allowed to return to his plane. Luckily for the 125 passengers waiting on board for him to fly them to Tangiers, Schiphol’s officials declined and slapped him with a 2,500-guilder fine ($1,150 U.S.).

Drunken airline pilot detained before flying plane - Salon.com (http://www.salon.com/2000/01/26/pilot_5/)

Drunk Delta Pilot Arrested in Cockpit: Dutch Police
By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ and MATT HOSFORD Sept. 14, 2010

A Delta pilot has been arrested and fined for allegedly being drunk as he was preparing to fly from Amsterdam to Newark Liberty International Airport, outside New York City.

The Dutch National Police Corps has not identified the pilot but says he is a 52-year-old captain from Woodbury, N.J., according to the Associated Press.

"Our policy is among one of the strictest in the industry and we have no tolerance for violations," Delta spokesman Anthony Black.

Police say they arrested the man in the cockpit of his plane after an anonymous tip. The AP reported that a breath test found he had a blood alcohol content of 0.023 percent - a hair above the legal limit in the Netherlands.

The pilot was fined about $900 and released, according to a statement from police.

Drunk Delta Pilot Arrested in Cockpit: Airline Captain Was Planning to Fly from Amsterdam to New York - ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/drunk-delta-pilot-arrested-cockpit-airline-captain-planning/story?id=11637035)

[gearlever]

Air Astana

Air Astana comments on drunk pilot incident (http://www.inform.kz/en/air-astana-comments-on-drunk-pilot-incident_a3047849)

[Metro man]

The "bottle to throttle" time limit is of very little use, as many a driver pulled over on his way to work the morning after a real bender has found out.

At 26 he is old enough to know better. Unfortunately this tars us all with the same brush.

[Airbubba]

5000 euros and a few hours of sobering up is pretty minor compared to what drunk pilots get in other countries these days.

The United pilots in Glasgow copped guilty pleas and each got ten month sentences earlier this year. After release, they will face the music back in the U.S., probably go through the cult of HIMS, re-earn their licenses and resume their careers on double secret probation.

Pilot jailed for drinking before flight - BBC News (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-39368762)

[Doors to Automatic]

12hr Bottle to throttle advice only works up to 6 pints of beer or so, assuming a guaranteed zero reading the next day. Perhaps it should be extended to 18 hours?

[Herod]

Can't agree to that one. Yes, a pint of ordinary strength beer metabolises in about three hours, so four pints. However, I understand that the modern machine will pick up the fact that you had a liqueur chocolate last week!
In my last few years of working, I only drank on the first night of a two-day break, giving over 36 hours abstinence. Boring, but safe. Since retirement I've become teetotal, and enjoy some of the better alcohol-free beers now being produced.

I guess my company was very enlightened. We had a pilot with a bad alcohol problem, and the company did everything it could to help him dry out. Sadly it didn't work, and he had to resign, but they tried.

[aterpster]

Most, if not all, U.S. carriers are similarly enlightened and have been since circa 1980. But, all bets are off if a pilot reports for duty intoxicated. That is automatic termination.

If the pilot was "turned in" off duty, then the company would keep him/her on full pay and send him/her to a first-rate 30-day recovery facility. Then, the pilot had to be monitor for several months afterward.

[blimey]

10 ml of alcohol = 1 unit. You might metabolise 1 unit per hour, though it might be very much less.

Do the maths, and make sure your colleagues/crew can also do their times tables.

Then encourage them not to get even remotely close.

[Reverserbucket]

You might metabolise 1 unit per hour, though it might be very much less True, although I'm under the impression that the effect is cumulative meaning that 4 units could take considerably longer than 4 hours to metabolise. Clearly, 12 hours (or greater) bottle to throttle is an unscientific and very rough rule of thumb following fairly limited intake.

Nevertheless, with the potential for detection being greater these days anywhere, I would have thought AMS where checking at the crew centre has been in place for years has got to be the one place where abstinence on a night stop would be prudently observed?

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Has there ever been a commercial airline accident where the alcohol level in flight crew was a factor?

A friend was a commercial pilot for a major carrier between the '60s and early 2000s (a captain for over half that time) and his tales of some of the epic drinking that went on 'down the line' are quite amazing by today's 'zero tolerance' standards.

[fox niner]

Just to clarify the "who has 5 grand sloshing about on their account" policy here in NL.
The police will offer you a one-off golden opportunity to pay up. By doing so you "admit" being guilty and in return the whole affair is settled. No more court case, no more hassle. You do get registered and everything.
It is a pragmatic approach, it saves the court system a lot of work. No lengthy procedures etc.
If you want a lengthy procedure, sure. You get arrested and then it all starts. Have fun and try.
Don't drink and fly.

[DIBO]

Someone did it again today at AMS!!
51yo co-pilot with 0,63 promille (limit 0,2), flight cancelled.
The only cancelled flight this morning appears to be a 07:30am China Southern Airlines 777-200F flight.
The newspapers report that the other 10 crewmembers tested OK. Not specified if it were crew members from different flights/airlines.

[APU_inop]

10 crew members on a freighter plane? must have been positioning crews

[jeehaa]

Delta to JFK this morning was cancelled

[Airbubba]

Delta to JFK this morning was cancelled

From Aviation24.be:

Co-pilot above the legal alcohol limit at Amsterdam Schiphol, flight cancelled and heavy fineByBart Noëth (https://www.aviation24.be/author/admin/)-27 January 2019


On 27 January, a 51-year-old co-pilot was held at Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam): after an alcohol test, he was found to be above the legal limit. “The ten other crew members were alcohol-free, but the foreign airline was forced to cancel the flight,” airport police said. The co-pilot immediately paid the €3,400 fine.

When checking the official site, only one long-haul flight was cancelled this morning: Delta Air Lines DL47 towards New York JFK. Upon request, the airline confirmed to Aviation24.be that that flight was cancelled due to a mechanical issue.


*

[Rated De]

Anybody who has read of Captain Prouse knows that he indeed did the time.
That the sentencing Judge later helped lobby for his reinstatement (which occurred) is testament that perhaps eventually people recognise that many factors are at play, including what is actually a disease.
Captain Prouse does not shy away from his responsibility, but his story helps explain some more of the insidious factors at play, including family and peer.

There are lots of subtle factors at play for pilots, but anonymous tipsters can end a career. Thus perhaps the only way to deal with sleep disturbance, dietary problems and all sorts of issues that arise from rest periods designed to save a few dollars, is to take a proactive approach to self management. It is unlikely that the regulators, corporations or indeed society ever acknowledges its part in what may well start as part of 'social acceptance ritual' but often descends into 'social ridicule' and even criminal prosecution.

[bcgallacher]

Some years ago I regularly flew in the observers seat of 747s as flight mech.More than once I flew with a particular captain whose behaviour led me to believe he was under the influence - the problem I had was that the other crew members seemed to accept his condition so I was reluctant to do anything. Finally one night as he was boarding an ops officer put his arm across the door and said to him "Not tonight captain" - that was the last we saw of him so someone must have decided enough was enough. We later heard that flight attendants had noticed a concealed bottle in the crew lavatory.