It ought not to be necessary to remind pilots that flying planes involves a certain amount of responsibility. Generally speaking, pilots should be sufficiently trained and prepared for a flight as to avoid causing a crash or heading in the wrong direction. These are relatively basic requirements.
Unfortunately, one pilot who turned up for work at Heathrow last year was arguably unable to meet these simple criteria because he was, in a word, drunk.
According to reports, 49-year-old George La Perle showed up at Heathrow in November 2010 ready to fly his plane to the US. Despite arriving at the right airport at the right time, Mr La Perle was stopped by security officers who had become concerned about the pilot's state of sobriety.
Allegedly stinking of alcohol, Mr La Perle – as any intoxicated pilot might do – attempted to reason with the security officers by stating that his odour was the consequence of drinking several beers the night before and that he was ready, willing and able to take the scheduled flight to New York. Of course, Mr La Perle's actual destination was Detroit.
A First Officer at Delta Airlines with twenty years experience, Mr La Perle was unable to convince security officers that he was sufficiently sober to board the Boeing 767, which was carrying 240 passengers. A subsequent blood test revealed the pilot to be four and a half times over the prescribed legal limit for alcohol. Further investigations revealed the pilot to be an alcoholic, raising serious questions of the man's relatively lengthy career.
Last Friday, Mr La Perle was jailed for six months by Judge Phillip Matthews, who ruled: "You knew that you were about to co-pilot a Boeing 767 across the Atlantic with all that entails, yet you had consumed alcohol which, at the time that you arrived at Heathrow Airport, was showing that you were four times over the prescribed aviation limit. The consequences for the passengers on that plane, if you had piloted for any stage of that journey, which was a distinct possibility bearing in mind that is what you were employed to do, were potentially catastrophic."
Personal injury claims involving inebriated pilots are, thankfully, extremely rare. The case of Mr La Perle ought to raise serious concerns, however, of the behaviour of pilots generally. As noted by Judge Phillip Matthews, had Mr La Perle been required to pilot the Boeing 767 during the flight, passengers might have found themselves in New York… or worse.
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