Report a captain for drinking: get kicked off the plane
 

Woman Kicked Off Flight After Accusing Pilot of Drinking

According the article, several pax thought they smelled alcohol on the captain's breath. Apparently this was an erroneous accusation.
With logic like that, I'm glad Aimer is no longer a UA pilot.

some perverse logic there! Had they let her on her way, no-one would have likely heard about this. Now, damage control....

Retaliation. Much the same way as TSA screeners retaliate against those that call them on something.

when did everyone over there get so angry?

Retaliation, yes, but if the passenger believed she smelled alcohol on the captain (and several other pax also seemed to smell the same thing), you would think she would have voluntarily deboarded herself.

That's what I'd do. If I truly believed I had smelled booze on one of the pilots, I wouldn't believe whatever story the good-ol-boy network of pilots/FAs/GAs/etc said about him "passing" a test, and I would get off the plane. There's just no way to tell who might be covering for him, and I would believe my own senses over a claim by some stranger.

I'd do the same-- and then follow up with a phone call to the airline, FAA, and law enforcement. They all may or may not do anything, but I'd think it would be prudent to inform them of what's happening.

I don't think crew members don't have any more desire to fly with an impaired pilot than PAX do.

didn't C____ Airlines have a few pilots and flight attendants who got in trouble
because they were playing drinking games in their Anchorage hotel room just
before going on duty for a 12-hour flight?

as for the passenger who got kicked off for making the wrong accusation....
that's a tought one... what if she genuinely smelled alcohol in the pilot's
breath? Should she be punished for it?

I guess if it were me, I'd keep my mouth shut and hope the co-pilot can
fly sober. :rolleyes:

Delta passenger kicked off flight for asking if pilot had been drinking...
 

http://consumerist.com/2010/08/delta...-drinking.html

A Pilot´s response:

http://consumerist.com/2010/08/a-pil...-drinking.html

I feel DL went too far in removing the passenger from the flight after taking the time to inform her that the pilot had taken and passed a breathalyzer test. Did the pilot feel that insecure in his ability to pilot the plane that he needed the passenger removed from the flight? :td: :td: :td: DL

It wasn't DL that removed the passenger; it was the pilot.

I don't know what I think about this issue. But either the pilot is in charge of the aircraft or (s)he isn't.

There are plenty of folks here who complain that pilots stuck in unending tarmac delays should take charge of the situation and do something about it instead of submitting to mindless bureaucrats. Here, a pilot was uncomfortable flying a passenger, who had made a false accusation against him, and used the authority granted to him rather than submitting to bureaucracy once again.

There's a lot here we don't know. Was the false accusation simply an honest mistake, a stupid joke, or a malicious attempt to smear the pilot? How was the passenger reacting to the outcome --- accepting the result, or continuing to smear the pilot further? That might make a big difference in how we view the justness of the result.

Since there is an existing thread on this topic, we’ll merge the two.

___________________________

Cholula
TS/S Co-Moderator

I can see both sides of the story, but the thing that makes me wonder about the passenger as vodka typically have a odor, but it would take a vodka drinker to know the "smell". Despite what the crazys are saying in the comments the pilot was within his rights to boot her as having a riot at 30K+ feet is not my idea of fun.

How is that a riot might have occurred if the pilot hadn't booted her off the plane?

Not necessarily. I don't drink vodka but I'd know that smell anywhere. As would plenty of FAs, cocktail servers and bar tenders. :shrug: