Drunk Pilot

Velocity173

Velocity173

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Jul 3, 2012
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Velocity173
I don’t remember a thread on this one before. It’s a crying shame that airports don’t have a runway 38! Can he still log this for flight time since he was taxiing for the purpose of flight?

 
VAS Aviation had that a while back. There are a couple of recordings of jet pilots, as well, who've had liquid lunches.
 
Listening to this, it's obvious that he was impaired. Although it is easiest to assume alcohol (and perhaps that was subsequently confirmed), I do wonder whether CO poisoning could have produced a similar effect, particularly as his mental faculties seemed to degrade as time progressed. Does anyone have more information on this incident?
 
AvNavCom said:
Listening to this, it's obvious that he was impaired. Although it is easiest to assume alcohol (and perhaps that was subsequently confirmed), I do wonder whether CO poisoning could have produced a similar effect, particularly as his mental faculties seemed to degrade as time progressed. Does anyone have more information on this incident?
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www.imfromdenver.com

Drunk Pilot With 5x Legal BAC Stopped Before Takeoff at Colorado Airport

Drunk Pilot Stopped on Runway at Colorado Airport With BAC 5 Times Legal Limit A potentially dangerous situation was narrowly
www.imfromdenver.com www.imfromdenver.com

www.natca.org

Archie League Awards 2018: Alert BJC Controllers Stop a Drunk Pilot From Taking Off

The 14th Annual Archie League Medal of Safety Award Winners
www.natca.org www.natca.org
 
Holy cow! .40 BAC apparently. Dude is a hardcore long-term alky. That BAC is getting close to high enough to kill a normal person.
 
Latter article says 0.2 BAC. The former (with a wild AI image of a pseudo-Cessna with wings going through the back-window getting traffic-stopped on a highway) suggests five-times the limit. If the former's reporting is as accurate as their article image, I'm going with NATCA as a more reliable source. Regardless, that's *very* drunk. What an asshat. Hopefully his certificates are all permanently revoked.
 
Trip to court for the trial of a drunk driver. Our incidental interest was we were one of 5 cars he hit, in addition to hitting the same bridge concrete abutment twice.

While we waited for his case to come up, we talked to a hospital employee who was there to testify to the BAC of the defendant. It was .39, and she described it as the highest she had ever measured on blood from a living person.

His lawyer arranged for him to plead to a lesser offense, pay a large fine, and did not lose his right to drive. The BAC never came into testimony.

He lived just 2 blocks from me. Scary.
 
AvNavCom said:
Latter article says 0.2 BAC. The former (with a wild AI image of a pseudo-Cessna with wings going through the back-window getting traffic-stopped on a highway) suggests five-times the limit. If the former's reporting is as accurate as their article image, I'm going with NATCA as a more reliable source. Regardless, that's *very* drunk. What an asshat. Hopefully his certificates are all permanently revoked.
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The two articles are from 8 years apart and the older one doesn't reference a tail number so I suspect these are two different incidents at the same airport.
 
strikes2k said:
The two articles are from 8 years apart and the older one doesn't reference a tail number so I suspect these are two different incidents at the same airport.
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Public safety might be be well served by having a bar at the airport, but at least the owner is doing good business...
 
ateamer said:
Holy cow! .40 BAC apparently. Dude is a hardcore long-term alky. That BAC is getting close to high enough to kill a normal person.
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Remember the threshold for flying is .04, so 5x .04 is .2
 
I thought maybe the guy was diabetic and not doing treatment well.

Years ago when I was renting, I came home to find a Troy police car in my driveway. Officer wanted to know if I knew anything about the car in the other side of the garage. Yep, downstairs neighbors. I didn't notice that the front end of their car was caved in and the airbag deployed. Apparently she drove it home like that. Another car shows up, cops visit the downstairs neighbor. As I'm walking away I heard her say "Oh, I didn't realize I hit anything". They couldn't charge her with DUI of course, because they had no proof she was drunk.

Not to start a whole thing, but I've always thought people should get a drinking license as well as a driver's license at 18. Drunk driving conviction? You can keep the driver's license, you lose the drinking license. Give someone a drink without the license? You're criminally liable for anything they do drunk, same as if you handed a known felon a rifle.
 
geezer said:
Trip to court for the trial of a drunk driver. Our incidental interest was we were one of 5 cars he hit, in addition to hitting the same bridge concrete abutment twice.

While we waited for his case to come up, we talked to a hospital employee who was there to testify to the BAC of the defendant. It was .39, and she described it as the highest she had ever measured on blood from a living person.

His lawyer arranged for him to plead to a lesser offense, pay a large fine, and did not lose his right to drive. The BAC never came into testimony.

He lived just 2 blocks from me. Scary.
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I don't always agree with your take here, but good lord, guy got to keep driving? YGBFSM!
 
Albany Tom said:
I thought maybe the guy was diabetic and not doing treatment well.

Years ago when I was renting, I came home to find a Troy police car in my driveway. Officer wanted to know if I knew anything about the car in the other side of the garage. Yep, downstairs neighbors. I didn't notice that the front end of their car was caved in and the airbag deployed. Apparently she drove it home like that. Another car shows up, cops visit the downstairs neighbor. As I'm walking away I heard her say "Oh, I didn't realize I hit anything". They couldn't charge her with DUI of course, because they had no proof she was drunk.

Not to start a whole thing, but I've always thought people should get a drinking license as well as a driver's license at 18. Drunk driving conviction? You can keep the driver's license, you lose the drinking license. Give someone a drink without the license? You're criminally liable for anything they do drunk, same as if you handed a known felon a rifle.
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George Carlin said people needed an "IQ license" where doing certain things required a minimum IQ.
 
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Racerx said:
Remember the threshold for flying is .04, so 5x .04 is .2
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From the article: “When law enforcement arrived, they found the pilot visibly impaired. He was unable to complete a field sobriety test, and later testing revealed his blood alcohol content (BAC) was five times the legal limit for drivers in Colorado”
The sentence indicated it was for drivers, not fliers, so the BAC coulda been a bit higher. Regardless of which number is correct, the dude was gassed
 
GoFly said:
From the article: “When law enforcement arrived, they found the pilot visibly impaired. He was unable to complete a field sobriety test, and later testing revealed his blood alcohol content (BAC) was five times the legal limit for drivers in Colorado”
The sentence indicated it was for drivers, not fliers, so the BAC coulda been a bit higher. Regardless of which number is correct, the dude was gassed
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The second article, written close to the time of the incident. Is a much more reliable source given that it talks about guys actually involved with the drunkard, and is an actual credible source. States he blew a .20

The difference is being bombed or dead. The wannabe influencer cares not about facts. But more about clickbait. So he lifted the 5 times the legal limit part. Wouldn't put it past him the entire article was AI.
 
flyingron said:
Remember that there is no such thing as a "legal limit." The .08 (or .04) is only the "per se" limit where you are PRESUMED to be intoxicated. You can be convicted of DUI at any alcohol level.
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Right. We've seen that before from that guy in Colorado. Passed every test the cop gave him. But still gave him a DUI. And he was a pilot, don't know how that one ended with the FAA.
 
Racerx said:
Right. We've seen that before from that guy in Colorado. Passed every test the cop gave him. But still gave him a DUI. And he was a pilot, don't know how that one ended with the FAA.
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That's a bit of a different problem as there appears to be an entire lack of probable cause nor any evidence of intoxication.

However, all those field sobriety tests aren't there for your benefit. It's to back up the proof of intoxication if the per se limit isn't reached. You can be rightfully convicted at .06 if the other evidence of impairment is shown.
 
AV8R_87 said:
Maybe it applies to flying as well.
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In college, after a lot of lab work, we determined the perfect level for shooting darts was 2.5 beers. :D

Enough to be loose and flowing, but not enough to start to become seriously uncoordinated.
 
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