Pinnacle Capt. has Awesome overnight!

[J.Otto]

Judgment is the first thing you lose when drinking alcohol.

Poor guy, Captain at 24 is something to be proud of. Hope his career isn't ruined but the story does sound quite odd and will surely make its way through the circles.

 

[Turtlesfly]

This guy is getting crucified in several different forums. Ask yourself, why do you care so much. Are you just an aviation nerd with nothing better to do than stomp on a guy that is down and out, to make yourself feel better about your miserable regional airline life? Climb back into your holes.

If this guy worked at B.K (another job with low pay and headsets) this wouldn't have made local news.

because he makes YOU LOOK BAD. DUMB ass

 

[Lear70]

The smartest thing this guy could do is resign and go over to China and fly a CRJ there for WASINC or some other contract for a 3-year stint.

He's GOING to get terminated. Count on it. PCL has a "fire first, ask questions later" standing policy. He will then have a termination on his record and, even if he gets his job back, will still have to report the termination on every employment application after that. Yes, there's standing legal precedent that backs that statement, upheld several times in appeals courts.

Going through the process, knowing what I know now, I'm dead serious about this. Terminated is the kiss of death for any good job out there for several years after it happens, even if the termination is provably unwarranted. Trust me on this one.

He's going to be terminated for violating the FOM, drinking within 12 hours of duty report (PCL isn't 8 hours, it's 12), and professional misconduct while on a company-paid layover (PCL has terminated people for that, too).

The Association may or may not be able to get his job back (I seriously doubt it), but it will haunt him the rest of his career. If he resigns first, this all goes away. There will be NO record of it at PCL - he hasn't been disciplined yet, only removed from flying status "on leave pending investigation". There's a jetBlue pilot who was pulled the same way, was GOING to be terminated, he resigned, and has no blemish on his record.

He can then go to work for IBEX or whoever internationally (current and qualified will almost guarantee him a job), on future applications say that he just wanted to see the world while he was still young and single, build time and let people forget this episode for 3 years while this industry recovers from the downturn, then come back to the U.S. at a later date.

By then you'll also have multiple CRJ-200's flying as corporate jets (CL850's, there's going to be lots of them), so he can possibly get into one of those.

If I had a way to get in touch with him directly and try to give him some advice as someone who's trying to fight it and all the angst that goes with it, I'd certainly try to convince him to let it go and live to fly another day.

 

[PCL_128]

With all due respect, Lear, you have no idea when he took his last drink. It's quite possible that it was outside of the 12-hour limit. The only time that Pinnacle has disciplined pilots in relation to their overnight activities involved unprofessional behavior directly with a contractor (hotel), or sexual harassment related activities. This pilot would be well advised to listen to his own legal counsel and not someone on a message board. No one here has all of the facts or is dealing directly with management.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

To CFI2766: Reference "News Flash"= EXACTLY!!! The only question in the mind of the flying public is 'How cheap is the ticket.' Period.

The public assumes that all of the high dollar cost are somehow rolled into that price..

Safety
Professionalism
etc....


Don't disapoint them!!

 

[Lear70]

With all due respect, Lear, you have no idea when he took his last drink. It's quite possible that it was outside of the 12-hour limit. The only time that Pinnacle has disciplined pilots in relation to their overnight activities involved unprofessional behavior directly with a contractor (hotel), or sexual harassment related activities. This pilot would be well advised to listen to his own legal counsel and not someone on a message board. No one here has all of the facts or is dealing directly with management.

You're right, I don't know, but I also know that it was pretty dang late when they were caught, they were both drunk at the time, and I'm told that overnight is only about 12 and change anyway...

You also know, as well as I do, that PCL has a terrible track record of enforcing terminations, but terminates people fairly quickly anyway.

You're also right that people shouldn't listen to other people on a message board ALONE, but I'm here to tell you that this sh*t ain't easy. It's heartbreaking, demoralizing, humiliating, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, especially with an HR group that goes out of its way to sabotage your job efforts, and all that is WITH the knowledge (and medical PROOF) that I didn't do anything wrong.

Not saying he'll suffer any or all of that but, if I was in his shoes, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't take that chance. His circumstances and mine are very different but, if they terminate him, he'll be on the street with 1,000 other unemployed pilots without any other type ratings or job skills to fall back on and, in my opinion, layoffs coming in the Sept/Oct time frame.

His timing couldn't be worse...

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

because he makes YOU LOOK BAD. DUMB ass

Perhaps.....

However, how you act and respond can make us look bad too..... no?

 

[atlcrashpad]

This reminds me of an incident a few years back when a Pinnacle FO and Gulfstream "poster boy" was let go after he invited a FA to his hotel room for pizza.

When she knocked on his door he was buck naked holding only the pizza and a pepperoni sausage.

Not sure if he was still wearing his watch.

Which hand had the pizza? Ha.... Bouyyyy.... you go Pea-knuckle.....

 

[s3jetman]

This is all my fault! Well according to some people on here. I also take blame for the PNCL flight and lexington flight as well. Let me explain!

Bradford was a student of mine at GIA

Jesse from PNCL flight that crashed was my captain at one time!
Peter, the FO was also my student at GIA

Jim, FO on the Lexington crash was my instructor at
GIA.

There you have it! Wow there is going to be alot more bad things happening because i instructed over 1,500 pilots that came though GIA and over 400 of them were hiered at PNCL.

Shut up with all the crap about how its GIA fault because years after they left something happend. Funny thing is never had an accident at GIA so it must be the training or lack of training at the other airlines!

 

[greyskyracer]

Hey s3jetman, did you win a few grand in a casino one night in FLL on a bad beat?