I'm sorry but for the life of me, I can't comprehend as to why an airline pilot who has worked so very hard to get to his position and but himself in major debt would throw it all away...because of alcohol.

What an idiot.

Wait..
 

Shane C,

One could accuse you of being the same.

Alcoholism(if that is what is at play here) and/or stupidity do not know any boundaries. They "strike" with impunity and do not discriminate. And usually the person in trouble finds it impossible to see his/her way out of the quagmire. In othe words, they cannot fix it themselves.

I hope it never happens to you,

Ramrise - Yeah very true, that particular pilot who ever he was, may indeed be an alcoholic...but flying isn't an avarage type of job. In this job, making mistakes and being intoxicated if he was, could end up killing himself and passenger's :(

He should of seeked help but, I don't know the reasons behind it of course. Just speculating :)

To me though, he has lost his job etc and he worked so hard to get there too. Real shame :(

It's nice to know the number of responsible, regulation abiding pilots out weight eh number of those who just can't seem to get it right.

It isn't lower for ATC it's exactly the same

It is part of our professional remit to identify problems that will endanger an operation.

Pressure and stress can be insidious, difficult to recognise and hard to accept. As more young lowtimers become involved we must expect a proportionate percentage to get it wrong. I am pressing for a study that compares the possible increase in this kind of behaviour with the reduction in terms and higher workload that has crept into the cockpit in recent years.

Customers expect pilots to act impeccably and they should expect the same from airline management. The days of expecting a business to follow rules in the spirit in which they were intended are over. "Safety is our main priority" might be printed on the card but the motivational posters were taken down in the office a while ago.

I believe the CAA must be firmer with airlines, especially in the current economic environment and the EASA proposals on FTL are an example of this. I have been sending the link in the T&E forum around my email contacts for a while now and I urge more people to do the same.

Excellent post, mr Walker.
Perhaps you should make a new thread about this?:ok:

To quote Pukin Dog
In fact in the USA 195,000 people every year are killed by medical error. Far more than those killed by drunk pilots. The person most likely to kill you in the USA is a doctor.
Pilots are monitored to the extreme - who is monitoring the doctors and how far advanced is medical CRM compared to aviation CRM? I suspect not very far.

Yup, in 2010 - 32,885 deaths in USA from car accidents, 14,748 murders and 195,000 killed by doctors!

We're doing well! :ok:

Who cares about us anyway..
 

EASA wants to approve 16 hours of duty time. That equals a couple of pints of beer. So what's the big deal.