Sunwing pilot pulled off YYC flight due to intoxication
 

Seems like Calgary Police have arrested a Slovakian foreign national Captain who passed out at the controls of a 737 before pushing off the gate. Supposedly with over 3 times the legal limit.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/pilot-r...lege-1.3223307

Pilots under the influence of alchohol
 

Why is this only now becoming a big problem. It has been going on for many years. Maybe they need to change the rule of bottle to throttle to 18 hrs?

Ban all Canadian airlines from Europe!!!

(you need to have followed the Indonesian thread to understand this) ;)

My pet peeve: How does a captain 3 times over the limit even make it to his seat without intervention?

This slovakian pilot managed to pass security in Canada, hopefully a more secure place than Indonesia...
Video available?

It is possible that the crew were not from Sunwing, if flight tracker is accurate this may have been a WetLease operation.
Flight Tracker is showing this flight as being operated by Thomson airways... , who were granted authority to operate some flights for SunWing under: https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/ruling/333-a-2016
Flight Tracker Data
Flight Details
View track log/graph · Track inbound plane
Departure Times
Gate Departure
Taxiing
Takeoff
Actual
01:02PM CST36 minutes

01:38PM CST
Scheduled
10:15AM CST
10:15AM CST
Arrival Times
06:58PM EST
Aircraft information
Owner
Thomsonfly.com
Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800 (twin-jet) (B738) Photos



Airline information



Airline

Sunwing "Sunwing" all flights

.... he got through just like this guy did:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...hrough-airport

He might not have been intoxicated when he passed security.

Canadian airport security doesn't come close to what is in the States or Great Britain...low pay, entry level employment positions in the workforce. I fear Canada's day is coming.

Improbable, he would have had his bags screened for liquids to enter sterile, and would have had to purchase duty- free in sterile, and find somewhere to imbibe. More likely got through with no-one questioning him. I don't think security screeners would be too inclined to stick their necks out on questioning a captain.... " not my job, mon!"

Calgary police have charged a pilot after he allegedly passed out from intoxication in the cockpit of a plane with 99 passengers and six crew members.

The flight was scheduled to make stops in Regina and Winnipeg before continuing on to Cancun, Mexico.

According to police, the pilot boarded a Sunwing Airlines 737-800 series aircraft in Calgary shortly before 7 a.m. on Dec. 31.

Crews at the gate and on the plane noticed the pilot was "behaving oddly, before he became unconscious in the cockpit," Staff Sgt. Paul Stacey told reporters at a news conference.

The pilot — a 37-year-old foreign national from Slovakia in Canada on a work visa — was taken into custody.

High blood alcohol level

Stacey said the pilot's blood alcohol level was tested about two hours after the arrest and found to be more than three times the legal limit.

The pilot has been charged with having care and control of an aircraft while impaired, and having care and control of an aircraft with a blood alcohol level over .08.

"Because he has as much alcohol in his system as he does, they're going to wait before he sobers up somewhat before he goes before a justice of the peace," Stacey said.

He says while he personally has never experienced an incident like this, he's not surprised the pilot was stopped before operating the plane.

"It had all the potential for a disaster, but I'll tell you this much — the likelihood of a pilot on a major airline like this actually being able to take off when they're impaired like that is pretty slim, because there's a lot of checks and balances. There's the other flight crew and there's gate crew and they're all about safety," he added.

'We are very apologetic'

Jacqueline Grossman, a spokesperson for Sunwing, said the company is "appreciative of our crew's diligence in handling this very unfortunate matter."

The company was able to find another captain to take the flight.

"We are very apologetic for any upset that this has caused and would like to assure our customers that safety remains our utmost priority," said Grossman by email.

'He won't be flying anytime soon'

Stacey says Transport Canada will conduct their own investigation and more charges could apply.

"I fully expect that there will be additional charges," he said.

The pilot will go before a justice of the peace once he has sobered up.

"To be more than three times the legal limit, that is a lot of booze," Stacey said.

"He won't be flying anytime soon."

Well done. Not done your homework before spouting nonsense.
Plus, who are Thomsonfly?

He'll be held in police custody and then brought before a JP later on in the day. Bail will be a cash deposit as he is a foreign national.

Shouldn't it be the other way around? The offending pilot was European.....

The F/O is going to have to do some hard and fast explaining and he'll not be the only one.

disgraceful !

....not so quick to blame the F/O please

Sgt. Paul Stacey, with Calgary police:

“They (the co-pilot) found him slumped over in the seat, in the pilot seat. He was the captain of the airline,” Stacey said.

Getting said pilot off the plane on the day I think is only the start of the problem for those colleagues that would find themselves in this situation.

Be interesting to hear how people would handle this scenario themselves. Perhaps more so the guy that you're reasonably confident is a bit on the nose but is fairly normal otherwise.

Do you suggest that he stand himself down in the hope that it's a one off and risk the possibility that it's not?

Do you refer them to management and risk their imminent dismissal?

Do you call security and have them tested when you're not even sure they're over the limit? Perhaps there is a medical condition that they're predisposed to?

I think even in advanced countries like mine this is a real legal and ethical minefield?

Believe it was a TVS pilot whose under a foreign crew permit operating for Sunwing on C-reg aircraft. The Thomson link is the aircraft is one of ours on a dry lease transferred onto SWGs AOC for the season, nothing to do with TOM except its our equipment on loan being operated by other crew if the public tracking data was correct.

I understand what you are saying but that wont help - in fact it may make it worse given human nature and the nature of addiction. In my industry (oil & gas) best in class operators typically operate a risk - based screening system for those involved in safety - critical operations eg refining, terminalling, offshore ops. I anecdotally hear that this is practiced on a limited basis by a few airlines (can anyone confirm?) and by some on a "for cause" basis (in other words on a crew where one individual is suspected or has been reported the entire FD and Cabin crew are tested without fear of favour). In our industry the unions sometimes support it and sometimes hate it, the employees mostly hate it and the companies dislike doing it but recognize that it saves lives. At the end of the day aggressive risk-based testing (where the frequency is adjusted to the location, the task and the outcomes) is the only way to cut this down to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP as we call it). You will never eliminate it except through 100% testing which is is simply not sustainable or desirable.

The programs we have are usually balanced by supportive intervention if the employee pre-emptively seeks help or admits (during a medical for example if markers in blood screens show that he/she has a problem).

Expecting some flak for the above but it seems that we are where we are and the point at where the increasing occurrence / discovery /media attention curve has intersected with the lack of public confidence curve. Time to get real.

See "programme management" in the following:

http://www.ipieca.org/media/2812/dru...6_12_13_lr.pdf