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Mesa pilots busted for booze

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Well, they say these things come in threes. Let's hope that puts it to bed for another 20 years... And for heaven's sake, people, explaining why you called in sick in the morning is a lot easier than explaining why you were about to fly the company's equipment drunk! Heck, you can say you got sick on the dinner you had last night...

On a similar note, does anyone know if those little alcohol-tester strips they sell in convenience stores are accurate at all? Might make a smart addition to the overnight bag if they are.
 
Dear… oh dear.


Especially in today’s environment you would think that everyone would lay low!!!

I can only assume these guys (the one’s busted) are borderline alcoholics and just cannot help themselves when it comes to drinking… kind of like cigarettes I guess.

Heck, just about every guy and gal in our department I’ve seen at one time or another, usually during a long layover sipping on an adult beverage. But when were on a layover of less than 24 it’s coke tea or water for me!

I worked to darn hard to get where I’m at to trash it over a drink.


On the front of those little test strips, they might work, but I seriously doubt they are accurate at all.

What you can do is this.

There is accompany called “Gall’s” they are in LEX KY. The sell equipment of all types to police/fire/EMS and they sell those little road side breath testers that cops make you blow into before you get hauled down to the pokey for the big breathalyzer. Last time I looked in one of their Mags they were selling for $50 or so dollars.

If you gotta have one, they will sell it to you, it’s not a Law Enforcement Item only.

Personally I’d just wait till you get home then get hammered, if ya got to have a drink.

Hubie
 
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CA1900, could idea with the strip tester, but a better more safe idea mite be to purchase an actual breathalizer tester from Sharper Image its runs for $99.

Your food poisioning idea is a good one.
 
I saw it on the news today, and they're saying that the captain had tested at .06, the FO and the F/A were tested negative, yet the FO was STILL suspended and the F/A resigned.


Makes ya think...
 
Here's the latest story..

The FO is suspended pending the completion of the investigation, and the FA resigned prior to the flight..


FORT WORTH, Texas (CNN) -- Mesa Airlines fired one of its pilots after he tested positive for consumption of alcohol before boarding his flight from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Charlotte, North Carolina, an airline spokesman said Tuesday.

Spokesman Brian Gillman said that Capt. Peter Treanor, 29, had been with the company for two and a half years with no previous disciplinary actions against him.

"The captain has been terminated, effective last night," Gillman said. "We have a zero tolerance policy."

Treanor lives in Charlotte, according to a report filed by Little Rock police.

The Federal Aviation Administration and Mesa, one of 10 regional airlines that form US Airways Express, are investigating the incident, which occurred Friday when a screener thought he smelled alcohol on the breath of a flight attendant and alerted authorities.

When police responded, they smelled alcohol on Treanor's breath, but not on the flight attendant's, according to the police report.

"All the crew was taken off the plane and given Breathalyzer tests by the police," said FAA spokesman John Clabes.

Gillman said Treanor was the only crew member who tested positive, but the crew's first officer was suspended from flying until the conclusion of the investigation.

Gillman also confirmed reports that the flight attendant has resigned, but said he had tendered his resignation before the incident took place.

US Airways Express flies commuter planes between US Airways hubs and other cities in the United States, Canada and the Bahamas.

Mesa grounded the Little Rock-to-Charlotte flight, on a 50-seat Embraer 145 commuter jet owned and operated by Mesa Air Group in Phoenix, Arizona, and rerouted the passengers on another plane, Clabes said.

The incident follows two other cases involving commercial pilots allegedly drinking before flying.

On July 2, two America West pilots were arrested and charged with operating an aircraft and driving under the influence at Miami International Airport after failing a Breathalyzer test, police said.

A judge has set an October 21 trial date for the pilots -- who have been fired and ordered remain in their home state of Arizona.

On July 31, an Atlantic Southeast Airlines pilot under investigation for allegedly reporting to work intoxicated resigned, a spokesman for the Atlanta, Georgia-based airline said.

The pilot tried to board his plane in Wilmington, North Carolina, for a flight to Atlanta, but a security agent stopped him, suspecting he might be drunk, according to the airline. The pilot's name was not released.
 
YGBSM!

Holy cow--more pilots have just been busted for alledgedly operating an aircraft under the influence, or at the very least being ready to do so,

AND SOME OF YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT THE NEED TO BUY A PORTABLE BREATHALIZER?

Give me a freakin' break. If someone from the general public were to look at this thread, they'd think we have a systemic problem with alcohol and are trying to hide by purchasing these devices. Breathalizers are not the answer to this crisis, folks. Unfortunately, this is indeed a crisis--we'll be lucky if more CFRs aren't written in a knee-jerk reaction in reaction to these three incidents.

Let me be blunt and offend some of you.

If you can't control your drinking, get out of this business. I don't want you to fly my family anywhere.

If you drink anything within 10 hours of reporting for duty, get out of this business--you don't have the willpower to do the right thing. Yeah, I know. Eight hours is the law, but how hard is it to maintain a buffer of safety?

Our profession cannot tolerate these episodes of drinking and flying, and we are certainly not helping matters by talking about testing strips and devices.

Flame on--this thought is only my .02, but I don't have any qualms about my stand.
 
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Eagleflip,
We don't always agree....but this time, sheesh. Are you people retarded?! If you have even the slightest doubt about your sobriety, don't go fly! Buying a breathalyzer for your flight bag....OMG.:eek:
 
Re: YGBSM!

Eagleflip said:
If you drink anything within 10 hours of reporting for duty, get out of this business--you don't have the willpower to do the right thing. Yeah, I know. Eight hours is the law, but how hard is it to maintain a buffer of safety?

So you're telling me that when I get done with my trip, get to the hotel restaurant at 8 o'clock with a 6am show the next day, one beer with dinner is unacceptable in your eyes?

8 hours is an arbitrary number; so is your 10. It's a question of how much is in your system, not how recently you consumed it. Two pitchers 10 hours ago is much more serious than two beers 8 hours ago.


You're certainly welcome to your opinions and your personal margin of safety, but to tell me to "get out of the business" because I had a beer nine hours before showtime is a little knee-jerk too, don't you think?
 
CA1900,

You're right, Eagleflip didn't phrase it properly. It should have been "Get the H-E-L-L out of this business." Confidence in our profession is falling in the public's eyes, and you insist on splitting hairs over whether it's OK to have a beer at 9pm when you have to show at 6am? What's the matter with you? You can't sleep without a beer? Then you have a problem and need help. You ought to be hitting the rack at 9pm, maybe getting 7 hrs of sleep, instead of depressing your central nervous system. Give me a break!
 
Personally, my rule is 24 hours. I'm pushing 40 and my metabolism isn't what it used to be. I've worked too hard to let a stupid beer screw up my career. Also, don't even think about drinking on a short overnight. It's not that hard people. We had better police ourselves or some TSA flunkie will be standing at the jetway telling us to breathe into the tube every time we go to work. That dog won't hunt!!!

Flame away

Steve
 
flip,

everything I was thinking as I was reading this thread was summed up in your post. I completely agree. I can't believe that a pilot would be in any situation where it would be necessary to have a breathalyzer at his disposal, especially after the recent wake up calls. Pathetic if you ask me...and that's coming from a true beer lover.
 
Jeff G said:
CA1900,

You're right, Eagleflip didn't phrase it properly. It should have been "Get the H-E-L-L out of this business." Confidence in our profession is falling in the public's eyes, and you insist on splitting hairs over whether it's OK to have a beer at 9pm when you have to show at 6am? What's the matter with you?

I'm not the one splitting hairs. He said he draws a new line at 10 hours, and anybody who disagrees with him should get out of the business. I'm not sitting there having a personal kegger before my showtime, believe me, and yes, I can sleep just fine without alcohol in my system.

But since I'm not going to "hit the rack" at 9pm when I haven't had any dinner yet, I'm going to be down at the restaurant for an hour or so to get some food. As it happens, I enjoy a beer with dinner. Now you're ready to hang me out as an alcoholic because I'm not adhering to somebody's new arbitrary number of hours? I adhere to the regulations, and I certainly don't have anything left in my system when I come to work.

As publisher correctly points out, alcohol isn't the problem, stupidity is. And I'll thank you to keep your armchair psychiatry to yourself.
 
Jeff G said:
You're right, Eagleflip didn't phrase it properly. It should have been "Get the H-E-L-L out of this business." Confidence in our profession is falling in the public's eyes, and you insist on splitting hairs over whether it's OK to have a beer at 9pm when you have to show at 6am? What's the matter with you? You can't sleep without a beer? Then you have a problem and need help. You ought to be hitting the rack at 9pm, maybe getting 7 hrs of sleep, instead of depressing your central nervous system. Give me a break!

As a potential future professional pilot, I agree wholeheartedly. When I see stuff like what is in this thread it makes me think that I should pick another profession: one that's more professional. Sometimes it seems that pilots are a bunch of slacker-college-drunks.
 
Drink Up Fellas !!

Drink all you want guys and girls, there's plenty of us out there on the street waiting to take the job you so freely piss away!
 
I'm with CA1900 on this one.

Maybe somebody will chime in claiming Eagleflip is a total alkie sack because HE doesn't wait ELEVEN hours instead of ten. Spare me the righteous indignation.

The reality is that the morons we're reading about weren't concerned about being an inch or two on one side of the line or the other, they were so far over it that it's not even funny.

We all agree that showing up to fly (work or not) reeking of booze is criminally, inexplicably, and enormously stupid. Why quibble?
 

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