America West Pilots Convicted Of Being Drunk In Cockpit

[siliconefreak]

I hope to see the day when a breathalyzer exam is required for all pilots immediately before boarding a plane for takeoff. This is completely unacceptable, in my opinion.
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Posted 6/8/2005 1:43 PM Updated 6/8/2005 4:15 PM

MIAMI (AP) — Two former America West pilots were convicted Wednesday of being drunk in the cockpit the morning after an all-night drinking binge at a sports bar.
The pilots face a minimum of probation and a maximum of five years in prison after being found guilty of operating an aircraft while drunk.

Defendants Thomas Cloyd and Christopher Hughes both bowed their heads when the verdict was read after a two-week trial and jury deliberations over parts of two days. Each man hugged weeping loved ones before being handcuffed and taken to jail.

Cloyd, 47, and Hughes, 44, were arrested July 1, 2002, as their Phoenix-bound jet was being pushed back from its gate at Miami International Airport.

More: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-06-08-drunk-pilots_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

[roguevalley]

1. Court tv showed the prosecutor putting 34 oz jugs on a table to show

how much they drank. I was astonished.

[ashling]

2. Terrorist?

we put school pricipals on a terrorist watch list for accidentally leaving a mayonaise knife in a carry on bag, but let this happen frquently.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. It's actually quite rare -- the FAA's statistics prove that.

Also, all airlines have random alcohol and drug testing procedures and zero tolerance policies. Without warning they make you pee in a jar, and if you flunk the test you're fired, and you will also lose your pilot's license. The FAA regs are very strict -- no alcohol at all within 8 hours of flying (the airlines require 12 hours); and blood alcohol can't be more than .04 (.10 is the most common minimum for driving). And ever since there was a train wreck some years ago because the engineer was stoned, it's a felony to operate a common carrier under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Very, very few pilots are foolish enough to risk their careers by drinking before flying.

[prole_for_peace]

3. defense argument -

"The pilots maintained they were not operating the aircraft because the Airbus 319 was being pushed by a runway tug and its steering was disengaged at the time it was ordered back to the terminal."

but if the plane hadn't been brought back to the terminal they WOULD have been flying the plane, both of them drunk off their ass.

i thought this was supposed to be the era of "personal responsibility"

[RobinA]

11. I Find It Amazing

that they attempted this essentially legalistic argument in front of a jury. In fact, I can't even believe they took this case to trial. Even a jury in Bush Era isn't going to be dumb enough to buy that nonsense.

[karlrschneider]

5. As a 40 year commercial pilot, I find this all a bit melodramatic...

I was forced to fly pretty much falling-down drunk one night...we
were drinking in a Detroit hotel bar and one of my passengers & I got into a big fight with the Exec VP of the company and told him to get his own way home to Oklahoma, we were going back right now. So we got a cab to the airport and found a pilot to fly us back. About 4 AM, I'm passed out in the right seat and the guy is frantically trying to wake me up; turns out he doesn't have an instrument rating (which he conveniently neglected to mention before we left - I should have gotten suspicious when he had a lot of trouble starting the engines) and we're about to fly into a line of thunderstorms. Well, I had to take over, get a clearance and land the thing...then we had to buy him a ticket back to Detroit.

Anyway, all I'm sayin' is from that experience I don't much worry about
having a pilot who might be a bit tipsy...
:eyes:

[siliconefreak]

6. I'm glad you said something

I just get really upset when I hear about drunk drivers, drunk pilots, etc. My father is an alcoholic and I've seen what it's done to him over the years.

I've heard pilots say that the planes practically fly themselves. Is that true? I've always wondered how much control the pilots really do have over most routine flights.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. The new airplanes are very automated

and are capable of pretty much flying themselves; they can even land themselves. Still, the pilots have to stay alert to be sure the airplane is doing what it's supposed to do. Things are always changing -- their filed flight plan might be amended; they might be cleared for a different approach than they'd programmed into the flight management system; or maybe something isn't working right. There's no excuse for flying under the influence, even if the airplane is doing most of the work.

[llmart]

I think it would be a really swell idea........

if we armed pilots with handguns. Don't you?

Major sarcasm here.

[siliconefreak]

10. drunks with guns

At least a drunk pistol-waving pilot would be easier to tackle than a sober one. How ironic that would be.

[smirkymonkey]

8. Hey, how can they be expected to offer competitive fares

if they only hire sober pilots?

[pie]

9. They only had seven beers apiece!?

And six hours had passed since their last drink.
How could they still be falling down drunk?

Did they each have seven pitchers of beer?