German police pull drunk Delta pilot off Atlanta-bound flight

"n-e-w-s" wrote in message German police stop Delta pilot on alcohol
suspicion

I've taken the liberty of removing the cross-postings.

For those in the educated group which remains, I'd like to point out that
for the airline I'm employed at, since the start of 2004 until the present,
3.7% of our pilot group has been accused of reporting to work while
intoxicated. ALL of the accused have tested negative for alcohol use.

Most of the time, a screener who has no training in recognizing substance
abuse makes an accusation. The allegation must be acted upon. Then the news
teams show up. The accused must take 3 breathalyzers in a 30 minute period.
During the 30 minutes, the news team usually figures out that they don't
have a story and they leave. The screener is not reprimanded so that s/he
isn't intimidated from reporting someone in the future who may actually be
drunk. Neither does the screener receive substance abuse recognition
training which might prevent a false accusation in the future.

It's one of a myriad of headaches that airline professionals endure.

D.

Ben wrote:

"n-e-w-s" wrote in message
news2hf21d2vf7js3c8ope9ogi4naq0pln3d5@news...
German police stop Delta pilot on alcohol suspicion
Thu Mar 3, 2005

FRANKFURT, March 3 (Reuters) - German police detained a Delta Air
Lines pilot suspected of being drunk at Frankfurt airport just before
he was due to make a flight to Atlanta, a spokeswoman for the airline
said on Thursday.

snip


What's wrong with having a few drinks before the flight?!


snip

You don't really think anyone would go up in one of those infernal "flying
machines" sober do you?


--
Frank....H

n-e-w-s wrote:

German police stop Delta pilot on alcohol suspicion
Thu Mar 3, 2005

FRANKFURT, March 3 (Reuters) - German police detained a Delta Air
Lines pilot suspected of being drunk at Frankfurt airport just before
he was due to make a flight to Atlanta, a spokeswoman for the airline
said on Thursday.

The first officer, one of two co-pilots on the Monday flight, was
taken to a Frankfurt police station and given a blood-alcohol test. A
Frankfurt police spokesman confirmed the pilot was detained and said
the test results were not yet known.

"One of the first officers of Delta flight 27 was detained by local
law enforcement representatives in Germany because of alleged alcohol
use," a spokeswoman for Delta in Munich said.

"Delta has removed the pilot from active service pending further
investigation of this matter." She declined to provide any details
about the pilot's name, age or nationality.

She said the Feb. 28 flight, which was carrying 156 passengers to the
southern U.S. city, was delayed slightly. The plane departed with a
captain and just one first officer rather than two, she said.

Police said the pilot was being investigated for possible charges of
dangerous interference in air transport.


When I die, I want to die peaceably in my sleep, like my grandfather;
Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

"Capt.Doug" wrote:

"n-e-w-s" wrote in message German police stop Delta pilot on alcohol
suspicion

I've taken the liberty of removing the cross-postings.

For those in the educated group which remains, I'd like to point out that
for the airline I'm employed at, since the start of 2004 until the present,
3.7% of our pilot group has been accused of reporting to work while
intoxicated. ALL of the accused have tested negative for alcohol use.

Most of the time, a screener who has no training in recognizing substance
abuse makes an accusation. The allegation must be acted upon. Then the news
teams show up. The accused must take 3 breathalyzers in a 30 minute period.
During the 30 minutes, the news team usually figures out that they don't
have a story and they leave. The screener is not reprimanded so that s/he
isn't intimidated from reporting someone in the future who may actually be
drunk. Neither does the screener receive substance abuse recognition
training which might prevent a false accusation in the future.

It's one of a myriad of headaches that airline professionals endure.

D.

Well, as you can see the majority prefers to participate in the rant.
Such pesky "boring real details" seem not to be of interest :-)

Thomas