Originally Posted by
LuvAirFrance
Question: Are passengers allowed to board drunk?
Usually, not.
Originally Posted by
LuvAirFrance
Are there rules that say someone in a tipsy state must be taken off the plane by airport security?
Tipsy and drunk are different things, but the airline can certainly deny boarding in the case that a person is drunk and likely to cause a disturbance or interfere with a flight crew. There is no rule that says security must remove the passenger from the aircraft, but if the passenger is already on the plane and does not remove himself under his own power, security will be happy to "help" effect his removal.
Originally Posted by
LuvAirFrance
If that were true, then whose responsibility is it that a passenger who came on sober (or at least not three sheets) gets drunk while flying.
Well, I'd say it is the passenger's responsibility not to get drunk, but it is the responsibility of the crew not to serve a passenger into that state.
Originally Posted by
LuvAirFrance
What I'm leading to is a binding limit on alcoholic drinks. Now, I can see airlines squirming at the notion of saying "no more" to a customer, but I'd rather law down that law than be scrambling jets. Of course, they may be stupid to scramble jets for any reason except a report of terrorists in control of the plane. But let's say that landings not on the flight plan also make no sense. The truth is no one who is inebriated should ever board a commercial flight. And once ON the flight, there should be no more than one drink per hour or two hours or whatever it takes for the body to metabolize the booze.
I don't think hard-and-fast limits are the way to go; the professional judgment of flight attendants seems to work most of the time. Compared with the number of passengers served alcohol, these drunken rage incidents are really quite rare. People tend to drink during mealtime, so a person might have 2 or 3 drinks with dinner and then sleep for the next few hours, making the hour-by-hour rule difficult from a customer service standpoint. It is also important to point out that different people metabolize alcohol differently, so a one-size-fits-all model would likely prove unworkable and would just annoy people who are perfectly capable of pacing themselves. Finally, a system like this could lead to more people beinging their own booze onto flights resulting in a greater problem than we have under the current system.