Parislover1

UA flight Paris to IAD was delayed then canceled because of crew shortage. They eventually said it was because they couldn’t find a replacement captain. Getting flights rebooked for tomorrow and then getting hotel voucher took almost three hours. Navigating CDG airport to get new tickets and luggage was a nightmare. Hope flight tomorrow goes better.

Infinite1K

Apparently the Captain had shown up intoxicated.

zeus2120

https://www.businessinsider.com/united-airlines-pilot-showed-up-drunk-work-six-months-sentence-2023-7

Pretty crazy stuff here. I wonder how UA handles situations like this. Slap on the wrist and back in the Captains chair? Demotion? Suspension? AA? Retraining? Termination? Seems like absolutely awful judgement. Nice job by CDG security for possibly preventing a disaster.


"A United Airlines pilot who showed up to work under the influence of alcohol was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence by a French court on Tuesday, Le Parisien reported.The 63-year-old American, identified by the newspaper only as Henry W, was set to fly from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to Washington Dulles Airport in Virginia on Sunday.

The pilot told the court that he had only drunk two glasses of wine the previous night, but police officers said the pilot was "showing signs of obvious drunkenness" when he arrived for work at 3 p.m., The Local reported.

Le Parisien reported that the pilot had a blood-alcohol level of 0.132%, more than six times the legal limit for pilots in Europe and three times the Federal Aviation Administration's limit."

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Unfortunately, chose to celebrate before the new contract takes effect. I’m guessing his retirement pay is not as big as it could have been.

CJ99

According to FlightStats, the flight only left a few minutes late. How were they able to find a replacement pilot so quickly?

phkc070408

Is he even eligible for retirement? In my industry, also transportation, if you committe a firable offense and choose to resign, they’ll still go through the proceedings to terminate you. Might not be much of a difference financially, but costs you your NRSA pass and any other employee provided retirement benefits. If your not of retirement age, it prevents you from being rehired and in the case of D&A, puts a mark on your licenses (not drivers licenses) that makes you inelligable to perform service for any other carrier, if you hold one.

zeus2120

Any chance they flew the route unaugmented?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Article states he was 63. I'm just guessing he might be in a conventional retirement plan and he's vested w/ enough UA years. Certainly don't know the facts. UA maybe could strip him of ancillary benefits that go with retiring in good standing aside from the monthly check.

HNLbasedFlyer

.13 at 3pm in the afternoon? Wow - that isn't drinking from the night before.

jackk763

I was today years old when I learned that the legal limit for commercial jet pilots is not 0.00.

SPN Lifer

It sounds like .02 BAC in Europe and .04 for the U.S.

Having done DUI defense, inter alia, at the CNMI Office of the Public Defender for 4½ years, those cut-offs do not concern me.

jackk763

I would guess most commercial airlines (unless the unions put up a fight) would set a cutoff of 0.00. Not such a great look for the captain to pick up a pint and head to the gate.

DataPlumber

The pilot in question will loose their medical certificate with the FAA all but certain to be fired by UA. The process they would have to go through to get the medical and job reinstated would take years. I’ve read a few articles on the topic. Given their reported age, they won’t be flying anything at UA again.

rhwbullhead

It's sad that a pilot that close to retirement had that much a problem that he couldn't keep it together for just a little longer to retirement.

While sympathize, it's horrible to put that many lives at risk (and potentially more lives on another plane or on the ground). It seems appropriate that he's never gonna fly again.

I can't help but wonder if he's gotten away with it before...
​​

JimInOhio

I doubt we'd see any policy of a 0.00 BAC limit as it opens the door to false positives.