Right Now, There Are No Laws, Only Voluntary Standards

Three members of a British Airways crew were recently dragged off a plane after two of them -- the pilot and copilot -- failed a cockpit breath-alcohol test.  The purser on Flight BA-761, bound to London from Oslo, was also detained after he was supposedly spotted in a club with the pilots for hours before their scheduled take-off.
 
The Daily Sun newspaper reports many of the passengers bound for London on board were "worried about the state of the crew." Those concerns were reportedly made worse when First Officer David Ryan showed up late for the flight. A member of the ground crew reportedly entered the cockpit after the pilot had settled in and said the compartment "reeked of drink."

The flight was cancelled. Fifty-five passengers had to find another way to London. The crew was arrested by Norwegian police and thrown in the calaboose.

But the three crew members were released from the Norwegian jail on the very same night. They returned deadhead to Britain. But they won't be charged with any crimes. There are apparently no British laws under which they might be prosecuted. Instead, they face dismissal from BA for "gross misconduct." BA rules permit "moderate" drinking in the 24 hours before a flight, with no drinking eight hours before a scheduled flight.

But the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) only offers guidelines on alcohol consumption by flight crews: They "must not be under the influence of drink or drugs to such an extent to impair their capacity."

A CAA spokesman tells the London Daily Telegraph, "Annually, on average, we have 12 to 15 British pilots referred to us on alcohol-related issues. We have no evidence of a growing problem."

Hmmm. European pilots don't face the random, mandatory breath tests that US pilots face. Last year, 22 American flight crew members were found in violation of the bottle-to-throttle rule. The year before, nine pilots were found in violation. There are about 75,000 pilots in the American fleet, considerably more than in the British stable of flight crews. Considering the number of British pilots who were able to fly undetected while tipsy, the Telegraph suggests the percentage of British pilots flying under the influence is considerably larger than it is across the pond.

Now, the British government plans legislation that would define the permissible blood-alcohol content of flight crew members and subject them to random testing. There's no indication when that legislation will be introduced in Parliament. So far, there's been no reaction from any of the British pilot unions. But one industry source tells the Telegraph, "The pilot community knows that there is a problem."

FMI: www.caa.co.uk/index.asp