Originally Posted by
rayikes
Should your employer send you to a pysch eval if you miss a phone call or are frazzled? It's pretty common to see people worked up before/during the early parts of a presentation, after running late to something, after speaking to certain people and the list goes on; are they in imminent danger of a "severe mental disease or defect"?
A sales presentation is a good example (and one with which I can easily identify). If I (or someone else) showed up for a client presentation with a shirt not tucked in their pants, a questionable tie and a slurred speach... My guess is someone would pull me to the side and tell me to "sit this one out". This with no human lives hanging in the balance. Now, if I was to pilot a plane full of people instead of a deck of slides, I would expect my colleagues to scrutinize me even closer. Not sure what the legal verdict will be, but from the common sense and ethics perspective I think this one is pretty clear cut.
In the wake of the Germanwings disaster we can pretty much kiss this one goodbye. Besides, the JetBlue pilot is claiming he was incapacitated and unable to make the judgement for himself. As long as he did not intentionally incapacitate himself (e.g. by knowingly ingesting controlled substances), he may have a case.
The former pilot should count his blessings that he's not in prison or paying for the diversion and move on.
No civilized society should send someone to jail because they fell ill... if he indeed had a stroke.