Delta pilot suspected of drinking arrested at MSP
For some perspective on the DL pilot breathalyzer results: On average, metabolism of alcohol results in BAC being reduced by about .015% per hour (after you stop drinking, of course). That suggests that the Delta pilot was somewhere near .08 four or so hours before reporting. That, in turn, suggests that he was drinking well after the 8-hour period began or that he was pretty much slammed eight hours before showing up at MSP.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Asia
Posts: 96
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
This was put out by our union a while back.
Legal Ramifications of the Misuse of Alcohol
Suppose you are out on a trip. You have a 16-hour layover in Phoenix. You get to the hotel and go out to dinner with your crew and have a few drinks. You decide to go out to a bar to watch a ballgame on TV and there you have several more drinks. You stop drinking exactly 8 hours before the next day's scheduled departure at 9 am. You stay out a bit longer to see the end of the game, and then back at the hotel you can't get to sleep. You toss and turn and finally fall asleep around 1:30 in the morning. The next morning you are feeling tired and doze off after the alarm and wake-up call. You wake up with a start and have five minutes before show time for the van ride. You don't have time to shower – you just throw on your uniform, and race down to the lobby. You are five minutes late for the van, and the hotel was just starting to call up to your room.
At the airport you pass through security and go to the gate to stow your bags on the aircraft. The CSR checks you in, and you go on down to Station Ops. Twenty minutes later as you are getting ready to head back up to the gate the Station Manger arrives and asks to talk to you. You have what seems to be an innocuous conversation, but then she tells you that you will need to take a breathalyzer test. The CSR smelled alcohol on your breath, and so does the Station Manager.
The next thing you know, you are on the phone with the FODM who tells you that the flight is being delayed and the tester is on the way to the airport. You call your Council Chairman, who manages to patch in an ALPA lawyer on the phone. The testing process is explained, including your obligation to comply with the breathalyzer test, as the Station Manager has observed you and determined that there is a "reasonable suspicion" that you may be presently under the influence of alcohol. The Station Manager received training on making these evaluations, and once the decision is made to summon the tester, there is no turning back. If you refuse the test, the FAA treats it as a positive.
Fifteen minutes later you take the initial "screening" breath test. It reads .046. Since this is over the limit of .04, you will have to take a confirmation test, the results of which will count towards determining if you are in violation of the FAR. These are the longest 15 minutes of your life. The second test reads .044. You are taken off the trip, and told to wait in Operations for further instructions. You call back the ALPA attorney, and have the first of what will be many conversations with them. Shortly after that your Flight Manager calls and says that they are arranging for you to deadhead back to the domicile, where he and other members of the local HIMS (Human Intervention Motivation Study) team will meet you.
In the coming days and weeks, the following will transpire: You are given the option to submit to a formal substance abuse evaluation to determine whether you have a diagnosable problem with drinking. As the ALPA attorney explained, the FAA's Federal Air Surgeon has found that a single incident of reporting for duty with a blood alcohol content above .04 is evidence enough for the FAA to invalidate your medical certificate. Your only route back to a First Class Medical Certificate is treatment through the HIMS Program. If you don't elect to be medically evaluated, you can expect to be fired. If you do seek treatment through HIMS, your discipline may be held in abeyance and you could keep your job. But it is a long road back to the cockpit, and your life as a drinker is over.
The results of the breath tests from the airport will be reported to the FAA, and they will open an investigation. Sometime after that the letter will come – probably via FedEx. The FAA is revoking all of your certificates. The Order of Revocation is effective immediately because the FAA Administrator has determined that an emergency exists, threatening air safety. The emergency threat is you.
The ALPA lawyer analyzes the case and explains that while you can appeal the FAA action, there is no practical hope of overturning the revocation of your certificates. With the breathalyzer test results in hand, and given the fact that you had already reported for duty at the aircraft, and conducted flight planning in Operations, the FAA's case is virtually air tight. The breathalyzer machines are maintained, tested, and re-calibrated regularly to meet federal standards, and there is very little chance that a judge will find the result to be unreliable. An appeal of an FAA action against your certificates is heard by an Administrative Law Judge of the NTSB. But under the law, the Administrative Judge cannot overturn the FAA's choice of penalty if it is within the range of penalties established by the FAA for the particular violation. So, if you are found to be in violation, even a sympathetic Judge cannot overturn the revocation.
The Chief Counsel's Office of the FAA in Washington has instructed all FAA field attorneys that they may not plea bargain down a pilot alcohol violation case to anything less than revocation of all certificates. Your licenses will be revoked for one year from the date of the letter, which will take a couple of months. This means that you won't be able to even begin the road back to flying for over a full year – and that is dependent on full compliance with the HIMS program and successful medical recertification.
During that one year before you can even try to regain your pilot certificates, you will be working to re-qualify for a medical certificate. As you are not medically fit to fly, you will be able to use sick leave, vacation and the Drug, Alcohol, Substance Abuse Treatment Benefit found in Section 24-H-13. The HIMS benefit provides for twelve (12) months of disability benefits under the LTD Plan. After exhausting these provisions there is no more income. Not until after the period of revocation will you will be allowed to re-take the written exams for private, instrument, multi-engine, commercial and ATP ratings, after which you will work with an FAA designated examiner to complete the flight checks. You have to rent an airplane, and since this is a reissuance this likely takes place in another state due to examiner expertise. And after all that you need to go to school for a week – not at DENFTC - and regain your ATP as well. All paid for out of your own pocket. Best case you could get back to work 18 months from that fateful morning in Phoenix, and that is if you have no setbacks in your recovery. Along the way you will almost certainly run out of income, and endure stress, shame and regret like almost nothing before in your life.
Now let's suppose that you were not laying over in Phoenix, but instead were in London. And it was not a CSR who smelled alcohol on your breath, but instead at security you dropped your bag while hoisting it up on the belt for the x-ray machine and it fell on your foot. The screener asked you if you are alright, and you exchange pleasantries. 20 minutes later it is the London police who find you in Operations to report that the screener smelled alcohol. The police have a breathalyzer with them. The FARs require that you submit to a breath test by a law enforcement agency, or again, the result will be presumed to be positive.
After the breath test, you are taken to the police station and a doctor is called to administer a blood test. You are then arrested and taken to jail. You are charged with a violation of the Transport Safety Act of 2003, in that you performed activities that are ancillary to aviation functions with an unlawfully high blood alcohol content. You are arrested because you had "reported for duty". This is considered to be preparing to serve as a pilot of an aircraft.
Yours might be a test case, as you were arrested down in Operations – not on board the aircraft. But you are clearly over the legal limit, as in the UK the legal limit is .02. Now in addition to the FAA revocation, you are facing criminal prosecution in a foreign country, with the possibility of jail time. ALPA might be able to help you find a criminal defense attorney, but there is little we can do to keep you out of the news. British news outlets pay "stringers" to hang around the courts to pick up juicy stories for them. You get written up in the London tabloids, which in this internet era, means that the local TV station back home will soon find out and reporters will be camped out at your door. You are now an internet and cable news sensation, and your airline is getting drug through the mud right with you.
These scenarios are not descriptions of actual pilot cases, but are inspired by real life events. The best legal advice I can give is don't drink to excess on layover. Just don't do it. The consequences are too great. If you think you have a problem with drinking – or drugs – contact your local HIMS Committee volunteers. They can help. You can prevent this from happening to you. Please take heed and do not become my next "client."
Hope this Delta pilot never sees the inside of a cockpit again. The flying public deserves better.
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Down a little lower and to the left. Right there baby right there
Posts: 32
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just a thought
For all of you holier then thou who are replying and commenting by standing in a circle and urinating on this person you may want to consider a few things. Firstly they did not wake up one day and decide to throw it all away, they are in pain in one way or another and they may well require some help. Some people don't ask for help, they use non verbal communication such as this. Maybe you need to walk a mile in their shoes?! Regardless a member of YOUR PROFESSION needs help, if you have never needed help then consider yourself to be very fortunate and in that small group whose your fecal has no smell. Perhaps a degree of compassion, understanding and support would be in order. Might be a reach for some of you, but the true PROFESSIONALS will figure it out.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 5,898
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
In my observation alcohol is one of the cards like gender and race that can be played in a U.S. airline termination hearing. I'm sure many people really do have an alcohol problem and recover their careers though the HIMS program (himsprogram.com). However, I've seen a few instances over the years where it appeared to me that a HIMS letter of agreement between the company and the union was invoked to excuse bizarre or violent behavior when alcohol wasn't really a player.
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Maryland
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
This is not someone who had one bad night - this was a long term functional alcoholic whose progression brought him to the point of trying to balance his blood alcohol level somewhere between obviously drunk and serious withdrawal - hence the bottle of vodka. It may seem strange ( and it is clearly illegal and wrong) but he would probably have been in better shape once he had had a chance to take a couple of belts from that bottle. I hope he moves on and accepts the help that is available and 3-5 years from now can say that this day saved his life.
