On the bright side, he is the right sort of idiot.
The wrong sort does what he did and fails to publicise it.

As SLF I don't want to sit behind either.

What's really scary is - having known a few people who tried to ruin their lives with cocaine, it's unlikely this was a first time.
As for fatigue - after a cocaine bender - it's pretty much a given that he didn't sleep at all, so flying fatigued is a given.

Youth of today, can’t tell them anything. It’s like it goes in one nostril, comes straight out the other..

Could have been the left one !

I think you will find it was Prince Harry that also got himself in a little bother whilst in South Africa!

Does this mean it’s now safe to consume drugs and alcohol before flying ?

I'm interested in the legal position, could he be facing UK charges as the offence was committed in South Africa but a UK registered aircraft would have been involved ?

He’s lucky BA managed to sneak him out before the local police got onto the case.

The hero is the no-hesitation FA and a system that supports reporting.

Question,
What’s with the two stripes on his sleeves. Do Two stripes denote an F/O at BA?

Two lines, perhaps?

..Yes....
SFO gets you the third.

Did somebody actually just ask that question on a Professional Pilots forum?? Good grief!

No of course it doesn’t mean that.

After any accident or incident the pilots are tested whether alive or not.

There is no physical test for fatigue after an event. a theoretical one maybe.

Fears of drugs and alcohol misuse in pilots is headline news at the moment where the accident and incident data doesn’t support those fears.

Meanwhile pilots, controllers, engineers, dispatchers etc are working v hard indeed post covid with the associated fatigue levels.
That’s the greater risk IMHO but it’s not publicised widely.

Atlantic Explorer,
A little dramatic response on your part, however, as an American, the only crew members who wore two stripes were the “professional Flight Engineers” back in the 727, DC-8 , 707 days. First Officers wore 3 stripes. Captains obviously four. I sat sideways on a 727 for a year as a “new hire” flight engineer at my airline, but I still wore 3 stripes since I was a Pilot ( who just happened to be performing FE duties until I could upgrade to F/O) We had a few Professional Flight Engineers who wore two stripes since they were not pilots, and would never upgrade to F/O. We haven’t had Crew members who wear two stripes since the 1980’s. Now perhaps you can understand my confusion, and so sorry to cause you so much angst.😀

,

The state of his necktie whilst on duty is a clue to his character. I thought the same about Boris.

[QUOTE=Chiefttp;11510486]Atlantic Explorer,
A little dramatic response on your part, however, as an American, the only crew members who wore two stripes were the “professional Flight Engineers” back in the 727, DC-8 , 707 days. First Officers wore 3 stripes. Captains obviously four. I sat sideways on a 727 for a year as a “new hire” flight engineer at my airline, but I still wore 3 stripes since I was a Pilot ( who just happened to be performing FE duties until I could upgrade to F/O) We had a few Professional Flight Engineers who wore two stripes as they were not pilots and would never upgrade to F/O. We haven’t had Crew members who wear two stripes since the 1980’s. Now perhaps you can understand my confusion, and so sorry to cause you so much angst.😀

I wouldn’t worry about it Atlantic Explorer , despite his moniker, clearly doesn’t get out much .

Not everyone here is a professional pilot, AE, - (especially the subject of this OP !). There are other airline industry members, and also interested non-pilots and passengers etc.

FWIW; the four airlines I have flown for designated a junior F/O with two stripes, a senior F/O with three, and a Captain with four. We never had flight engineers. (Cadets at flight school can have one stripe).

+1 from me. Recently ramp tested in Germany, asked for a breath test. Quick pass and a tick in the box for them. No questions about fatigue or rostering. The fact it was sector 4 on day 6 and I’d been up for 12 hours wasn’t even a consideration. Just to see if I had been drinking during the 3 previous sectors. So I asked, too difficult for them to evaluate and so it remains the elephant in the room. It’s probably not publicised enough because the airlines wouldn’t want shorter rostering, and “tired pilots” isn’t good enough clickbait for the media

Would you kindly quit making sense?

Sorry, it's a particular bug-bear of mine.

Re: Fatigue - it's a very valid concern in our industry, but that has nothing to do with this thread.

If you are tired or even fatigued, what you need is long good quality sleep, not wasting sleep time by staying up half the night during a lay-over, ingesting alcohol and coke.

In BA ,stripes on the uniform are a Seniority thing, nothing to do with position on the Flight Deck.
All new joiners are two stripe First Officers. According to experience/time in the Company three stripes follow as a Senior F/O.
BA do not employ Second Officers as all pilots are fully trained to operate on two crew ops. Many Long haul routes are operated with just two pilots including the A380.(UK to East Coast USA ,Dubai etc.) The LHR/JNB A380 rotation carries three pilots for crew rest.
The old press photo of said pilot with just two stripes shows him in the intake of a Short Haul A320 type. By now on the A380 he would be an SFO with three stripes. Or was!!