More pilot drinking trouble in Japan, as an ANA pilot was caught drinking then asked his co-pilot to cover for him and lie about it.
The two pilots were out drinking the night before their flight. Both were scheduled to fly from Osaka to Miyazaki at 7:00AM the following morning. While one pilot stopped drinking alcohol at 7:00PM in accordance with ANA’s 12-hour pre-flight ban on alcohol for pilots and flight crew, the other continued to drink.
In light of the huge embarrassment over drunkenness on JAL, both ANA and JAL have cracked down on in-flight drinking. To that end, breathalyzer tests are frequent and in many cases administered by the airline long before any government officials can.
All Nippon Airways performed an internal investigation and found the pilot consumed beverages until about 9:30PM the night before the flight, drinking beer and other alcohol beverages. Apparently, the co-pilot initially lied and said both men stopped drinking at the designated cutoff. I suspect CCTV footage or time stamps on restaurant/bar bills showed otherwise.
The pilot flies for ANA Wings Co, a subsidiary fo ANA. As a result of the sobriety issue, a replacement pilot was summoned, though that delayed the flight. As usually happens, a ripple-effect delayed five flights and 677 passengers. Hope the extra beer was worthwhile…
CONCLUSION
The pilot should be fired because he knew better. But what about the co-pilot? If one of my employees lies to me they are out. Immediately.
image: lasta29 / Wikimedia Commons CC 2.0
I am assuming you are referring to the captian and first officer when saying “pilot” and “co-pilot”, respectively. While this is not related to the article, I would like to provide constructive criticism and ask that you don’t use “pilot” and “co-pilot” when writing, each member of the flight deck crew is fully qualified to fly that airplane and the first officer is not the capitan’s assistant. While the captian does have responsibility as PIC airplanes are created to be flown by a two person team and not the “pilot” with the “co-pilot” assisting. This was actually a recommendation after the OZ crash at SFO that more training go into showing that the first officer is not “outranked” by the captian in terms of ensuring the safety of the airplane.
I deliberately used that language because captain vs. first officer was not specified in original source. Just pilot and co-pilot.
@Brad B Also consider: many flights are operated captain-captain, instead of captain-first officer. Do we know for a fact that it was a captain and first officer working this flight? Without knowing, I think pilot/co-pilot are more than adequate . /A320 “co-pilot”
Ben (lucky) is your friend apparently. His knowledge, experience and hard work is impressive to say the least.
I’m a pilot (ex 744 captain and corporate jets blah blah) Lucky totally lets himself down when he passes (often inaccurate and with poor or no technical basis) judgement on pilots or operational issues.
You’re not pilots, you don’t know anything beyond what my 6 year old knows about flying an aircraft or what it’s like to work day in day out for an airline.
Obviously alcohol and flying don’t mix and those that push the boundaries deserve what they get. I’d say though unless he had 6 drinks or something 9:30 pm stop doesn’t sound terrible.
I wasn’t there… neither were you. You don’t know anything of the stress involved in flying including not being able to sleep before flights etc and what that does to your psyche while flying large number of passengers in all sorts of weather, terrain and many things trying to get you killed.
Your employees? How many do you have hotshot? Once again, you’re not a pilot.
Like lucky you won’t listen (however he has stopped his ridiculous operational/ incident analysis recently but that may be a coincedence) and will offer a complete rebuttal to my criticism. Again… you ain’t a pilot, and you have zero knowledge of flying a large transport aircraft in the airline industry.
Yes yes I know you’re a passenger and you have a precious family. Me too. I don’t want drunk or hung over pilots. It’s wrong obviously and I am not condoning anything in that vein. I just know how things work and the norms and don’t pass judgement on situations without really knowing.
For all I know, the BAC limit is so low in Japan that the pilot wasn’t even “drunk”. I never accused the pilot of putting passengers in safety. But being truthful is so important…shame on the co-pilot for succumbing to the peer-pressure of his fellow pilot. This is not a “better than thou” judgement as much as reflection on why lying never makes sense.
The issue, as I see it, is the pilot knew 7pm was the cut off but didn’t have the self control to stop drinking. That inability to stop is a huge red flag for a substance abuse problem.