Pilots drinking too much before flying has been a concern for a long time. They've been cracking down on it a lot more in the past several years.

Oh, I'm sure he didn't have an important role in the flight... what's the big deal? I'm sure he "just had one."

Maybe he has a hard time focusing and he finds that flying drunk causes him to pay more attention to what he's supposed to be doing... HAHA I kid, but seriously, what was this guy thinking?! I can appreciate needing a drink, but perhaps next time wait until you won't be in the cockpit of a plane...

Actually, the BAC for a pilot flying to the US is .04 . So "just one" could put you over the limit.

Let me guess, they're taking the situation very seriously.

Yes, but are they taking it seriously?

Still outstripped by the great Northwest flight of 1990 with all three pilots drunk and actually making the flight. And their BACs were .06, .08, and .13, so two of them were drunk by highway standards as well. They got jail time.

while i'm perfectly in support of people that want to take their own lives, being willing to take other people's lives is just wrong. this is why drinking and operating any sort of vehicle should not only be illegal (like this) but should be a great indicator of how much of a dick you are because you're ok with risking other people's lives.

@citabria: it should be zero. don't drink before you fly a plane full of 1-300 people.

@floraposte: I know the F/O and his family from that flight, he's back flying now.

Oh, whatever. Everything's all electronic these days anyways. Let the guy have some fun!

Not sure what's worse...the pilot drunk of the story where the pilot actually fell asleep during the flight, causing the FAA to frantically radio them because they were going to fast while approaching the airport.

@m4ximusprim3: I'll drink to that!

@APFPilot: Well, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

The Navy's rule of thumb is "Twelve hours bottle to throttle," but apparently United's is eight hours, not that it would have made a difference in this case.

@m4ximusprim3: I'll drink AND fly to that!

There was a Mythbusters episode a few weeks or months back that proved someone who has never flown before could land a plane with the guidance of a trained pilot/flight controller. I think a pilot with a few beers could take ya home =P

I'm sure United is taking it "very seriously."

@MikeGrenade: You know what else make you feel warm and fuzzy? Four drinks in 20 minutes.

How's that for symetry!

I don't really get the "taking it seriously" comments. It's not like United let the guy fly the plane and then found him drunk. They got him off the plane before it took off. United handled the situation the was it was supposed to be handled and everyone lived to tell about it. I don't see how United did anything wrong here.

@algal924:
Not "was it was"...geez. WAY it was

Did he fail a blood test? Pilots already have much higher standards for alcohol than drivers, and breathalyzers are notoriously inaccurate, putting people in prison that don't belong there.

[www.duiblog.com]

[yro.slashdot.org]

I don't drink, but if I did, I'd ask (politely) for a blood test over the breath test. I wouldn't refuse the breath test (since that's illegal in most places), but if they refused to give me a blood test as well, I'd want it on the police record that I requested it and was denied. The only reason I've thought of this is one of the fail conditions found in the hardware for some breathalyzer machines is literally a fail. As in you blow over when you haven't had anything to drink.

Given the bit about the cops storming onto the plane and into the cockpit, it sounds like the typical "his coworkers called the police per company policy" situation that's happened at least a few times before.

Co-pilots and flight attendants are no more eager to have a drunk pilot then the rest of the passengers are . . . .

Ass-hat gets drunk and tries to fly. Gets smacked down hard by company which doesn't want him to kill their passengers. Everything seems to have happened the way it should have.

Wow, talk about the one job that you never want to show up to drunk.

Back in my day you needed a few before you felt safe enough getting in one of those things.

Then again, smoking was cool and sophisticated and recommended by doctors.

@katylostherart: Actually - this is something that the airlines and the FAA encourage. Going to just about any type of life counseling - for marriage issues, unhappiness, middle-age blues, debt counseling - and *any* medications that are not on a very short list invalidates your legality of flying. Then they pull your medical certificate until 6-12 months *after* you have stopped taking them.

Wife leave ya for the gardener? Don't go to counseling for it unless you've got a year's salary in the bank (where her lawyer can't get it). Need some blood pressure meds that aren't on the list? Bye-bye paycheck for at least 6 months.... and there's no guarantee that the FAA will allow you back later.

Instead, some pilots self-medicate instead of walking away from their income, health care, and pensions. It's unfortunate, but completely understandable (which is not to say excusable). The airlines squeeze all the employees as hard as they can, and the FAA rules treat any self-care type of activity suspiciously. The rules of the game create the very situation that they're trying to prevent!

What with all those stats about flying being safer than driving, maybe this guy just wanted to level the playing field a bit?

The Drudge Report beat you to this one guys ;-)

@bonzombiekitty: Looks like this particular pilot picked a helluva day to quit sniffing glue.

@Moosehawk: Honestly, now that I think about it, there was a lot more "turbulence" on flights back in the 80's than there is now.

I would bet "turbulence" is pilot code for "bumped the wheel while pouring another finger of dewars"

@animeredith: AA counselor?

I really do not think the company has this in place to call the Police. To much bad press as you can now see. More then likely someone called it in. I do know that the police does have a code that changes all the time so no one would know what it is.

Code ??-???; Officer lock their ass in the back, send someone to open the door.

Before you ask I dated a officer that had to go and open the door. I ask what does that one mean?

Scary stuff. My family and I are planning our family vacation for this year and we're strongly considering road-tripping it! This is just one of the reasons. We have a great chance of making it down to Orlando and I'm sure my husband and I won't be drinking.

Is that what people are paying for? For the pilots to drink, but to stay under the limit? They shouldn't be drinking at ALL. But who am I and what do I know? Nothing. Right.

@katylostherart: For the USAF and a few carriers any BAC over .01 is grounds for removal. Most pilots I know follow the "8 Hour" rule, which is no alcohol within 8 hours of their next flight.

@katylostherart: I completely agree. ANY is "too much" when it comes to flying an airplane.

@JPinCLE: The rule is: eight hours from bottle to throttle. "Just one" is one too many and speaks to the arrogance of a lot of pilots - not all, mind you, but some. It's the same arrogance that intoxicated folks call upon when they say "I'm OK to drive".

United should let this guy go at the very least - and he'll still be subject to FAA penalties and fines.

@algal924: It's an overused joke.

@shepd: It's sad how few people know about this.

Of course, with MADD making anything alcoholic look evil and anything (no matter how buggy, incorrect, or just plain wrong) that rats out people drinking alcohol look heavenly.

:(

At least he wasn't looking at sweet, sweet pornography.

@Maglet: You're paying for the TSA to steal your things, contaminate your stuff, and put you through pain. After that, some of your money goes towards buying things like water on a plane... because the long and unexplained wait on the plane will make you thirsty. You might be paying (out of your own pocket now) for a hotel room when the flight gets mysteriously canceled for weather.

Seriously, alcohol is the least of your worries right now and you should be pushing for far better things, like a half-way decent system!

@ivanthemute: i'd rather zero tolerance be an faa rule or something. a plane is just one of those things where the margin for error can result in a lot of deaths besides your own. even if the plane was empty of everyone but the pilot it could still wipe out half a neighborhood in a crash. and that 8 hour rule is kind of crap too. i mean i can drink a bottle of vodka, stop drinking and still definitely be drunk 8 hours later. and i'm sure you could say that's pretty extreme but it's not so uncome to have 8 drinks on a good night out for a lot of people. bac of zero and that's it.

@katylostherart: uncome? jesus, uncommon*

@WinstonGaloodle: as you said, understandable but not excusable, not in the least. just because you're having a bad year or a bad week or a bad whatever and can't afford to treat it with anything other than booze doesn't mean you should be off the hook at all for what your actions can do to others. speaking from personal experience on a lot of shit happening all at once with little to no acceptable recourse, i still didn't go out, get drunk and drive home. i do not believe mitigating circumstances should apply to preventable destruction.

If I remember right, the FAA rule is you can't fly as a required crew member until eight hours after the last drink, and there can't be any residual effects (i.e., if you've got a bad hangover, you shouldn't be flying.) I'd have to dig out my copy of the FARs to find the exact wording, but that's the gist of it.

Interestingly, it's also illegal under FAA regulations to allow a visibly intoxicated passenger to get on a plane. So when an airline gate agent tells you you're too drunk to get on the plane, they're just following the law.

@Ein2015: Really? You honestly don't think that a PILOT who has even one drink doesn't belong in prison? Really? Sorry, but the breathlizer is a-ok for me, in this case. One drink should = prison time, when you are FLYING A PLANE FULL OF PEOPLE.

@Ein2015: Er, I'd say drunk pilots are a high, high priority. Since, you know, a drunk pilot could kill THOUSANDS of people.

@Maglet: If I was flying a giant metal can full of people at hundreds of miles an hour, I'd need a F**King drink too...

I'm too drunk to fly too.

I just watched the movie "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World" (free on Comcast on-demand) and this story reminded me of the Jim Bacus pilot character who Buddy Ebson and Mickie Roony convince to fly them on their race to the goal. The character of a sloshed rich guy pilot is even more over the top today than even when that movie was filmed.

BTW that movie is great for children as it is pretty much a live action cartoon due to the slapstick comedy plus no curse words, nudity, or adult references...

The general FAA rule is 8 hours "bottle to throttle". Some airlines have stricter policies written into their operations manuals, which effectively become FAA rules, as the FAA approves the manual making it binding. The FAA rule also says if it's been over 8 hours, and your BAC is still over .04, or if you are still feeling the effects of alcohol, you cannot fly. I'm not sure if the airlines implement stricter regulations here. I suppose what I'm getting at is that the pilot may or may not have actually been "Drunk" as much as "over the limit". There aren't really enough facts in any of the stories to determine whether or not he blew over a .04 (or the UK equivalent). I am in absolutely no way advocating flying under the influence, but I'm merely trying to remove the image of a stumbling drunk pilot getting into a cockpit that many people get in their minds, and then determine that air travel is "risky". That said, the deterrents in place to protect against flying intoxicated are very, very strong. Not only is it essentially a guaranteed revocation of your licenses (read: livelihood), but also a nearly guaranteed jail sentence. Relatively, it's very rare that a pilot would fly over the limit (or within the time limit), and even if they did, the redundancy created by a (presumably sober) co-pilot mitigates most of the danger of a pilot who might be altered by the alcohol. The entire point of my diatribe here is that these things get blown way out of proportion regarding the true danger posed, especially when not all of the facts are presented (BAC, etc.).