Feared Pilot Was Intoxicated, Forced Airline To Bring In New Flight Crew

What started out as the misgivings of a handful of passengers mushroomed into a major situation onboard an Aeroflot Boeing 767 before a December flight from Moscow to New York.

Citing Russian news reports, the London Times stated this week several passengers complained to flight attendants after being greeted as they came onboard by Alexander Cheplevsky, one of four pilots scheduled for the roughly 11-hour trip on December 28. Those passengers feared the pilot's slurred speech and garbled responses indicated that he was drunk.

Flight attendants tried to downplay those fears... reportedly telling passengers at one point to stop "making trouble," and assuring them that even if Cheplevsky were intoxicated, the jet basically flew itself.

Discord quickly spread throughout the cabin, and Cheplevsky initially resisted efforts to have him leave the cockpit and speak with passengers. When he did emerge, his alleged bloodshot eyes and difficulty in standing up sent passengers over the edge.

"I don't think there's anyone in Russia who doesn't know what a drunk person looks like," passenger Katya Kushner told the Moscow Times. "At first, he was looking at us like we were crazy. Then, when we wouldn't back down, he said 'I'll sit here quietly in a corner. We have three more pilots. I won't even touch the controls, I promise'."

When Aeroflot officials learned that well-known Russian television personality Ksenia Sobchak was onboard the flight -- and, that she was demanding that all four pilots be replaced -- they came onboard to try to calm the situation, to no avail. After a drama-fraught three-hour delay, Aeroflot Flight 315 finally left Moscow, with a new flight crew onboard.

"It took [Cheplevsky] three attempts to say the words 'duration of flight,'" Sobchak recounted after the flight. "Even after Aeroflot personnel asked him to do so, he barely made it out of the cabin."

Aeroflot maintains tests showed Cheplevsky was not intoxicated. An airline spokeswoman blamed the affair on "mass psychosis" among passengers, and hinted Cheplevsky may have suffered a stroke before heading to the airport... which isn't exactly a more reassuring scenario.

Cheplevsky admitted he had been out celebrating his 54th birthday the night before the incident occurred, but swears he didn't drink.

FMI: www.aeroflot.ru/eng/