ATC calls police to meet A/C because FO 'sounded drunk'

... · Post by **...** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:08 pm

From another aviation forum;

The title says it all, but hear is what our company communicated to us about the incident:

You may have heard of an incident in Portland on Monday the 22nd involving allegations of impairment of one of our pilots. Here are some facts:
The FAA noted some irregularities in radio communication and contacted the airline.
Before we could evaluate this information or respond, the FAA elected to conduct, via the Port Police, an interview and evaluation on their own. For reasons unknown, this was conducted in the crew lounge, in full public view, without any presumption of innocence or regard for the pilot's reputation.
We need to let you know that the allegations were found to be groundless and that the pilot remains on flying status and under no suspicion by the airline.
Please help us squelch any rumors and continue to presume the best of our pilots.

What's next? A breathalyzer every 5 minutes in the cockpit? My guess is that the crew and the ATC had some disagreement/conflict and the controller was out to exact some revenge.

Anybody else ever hear of anything similar (based solely on radio exchanges)?

Does Nav Can have some sort of policy in place that mirrors that of US of A's?

In the interest of safety...should this be put in place here in Canada? Or is it just a witch hunt/abusing authority?

Doc · Post by **Doc** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:14 pm

I flew an Ercoupe from YWG to YQT (IFR) one dark night several years ago. Thought the controlers got a bit of a kick out of my 70kt ground speed, so, I cracked a couple of jokes enroute...and was met by the police upon landing at YQT. ATC had informed them they had reason to beleive I'd been drinking. I was simply intoxicated with stupidy! Typical anal reaction from ATC!

32a · Post by **32a** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:58 am

I'd hope the initial reaction to hearing an incoherent pilot would be hypoxia and not alcoholic intoxication. One does not need to be at high altitude to be hypoxic - carbon monoxide poisoning could get you there.

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 2:32 am

32a wrote:I'd hope the initial reaction to hearing an incoherent pilot would be hypoxia and not alcoholic intoxication. One does not need to be at high altitude to be hypoxic - carbon monoxide poisoning could get you there.

I like that, so they should have had an ambulance waiting too. So much for NavCan's thoughts about safety... Like I said in the A/C thread where the guy demanded info about the controller, these guys think they're king shit and will report anything just so they can get a promotion, little do they know it's a "SENIORITY BASED SYSTEM" so a loser with 2 years is going to be stuck in the shitty postings.... Ah well, navcan, hires the worst, and trains them to be even better. =))))

ski_bum · Post by **ski_bum** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:49 am

When I was 16 I worked in a gas station that had a McDicks drive through in it, their policy was if they heard anyone in the drive through that sounded intoxicated, and they could confirm when they took there money, they would call the cops and try and delay that car in the drive through until police would get there.

I think its a pretty good idea for ATC to do this, sure it may inconvience pilots everyonce in a while, but hey better safe that sorry.

my 2 cents...

bigfssguy · Post by **bigfssguy** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:54 am

No there is no policy that i am aware of to do this. If it were the case i would think all pilots were drunk ..(working for more or less free to build some hours in a C206?????) Anyways no there isn;t people have different accents and timbers and so many other valuables that it is hard to know if they were drunk or not, not to mention if the person had a speech impedement. The company could be sued if the right person took offense to it and we ll the company tries to shy away from lawsuits for odvious purposes.

Doc if i had the police called on me everytime i cracked a joke they would have there own chair in my tower. I'm always cracking jokes with pilots, ATC vehicle operators, i think you just got a grumpy person. And as for the typical anal ATC? Would you rather have lazy or unmotivated ATC clearing you for an ILS approach while overhead the airport at 20,000 ft becasue they were too lazy to descend you??? Try not to pidgeonhole everyone.

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:02 am

ski_bum wrote:When I was 16 I worked in a gas station that had a McDicks drive through in it, their policy was if they heard anyone in the drive through that sounded intoxicated, and they could confirm when they took there money, they would call the cops and try and delay that car in the drive through until police would get there.

I think its a pretty good idea for ATC to do this, sure it may inconvience pilots everyonce in a while, but hey better safe that sorry.

my 2 cents...

No it's not "safe," you can fly over toronto on on TML you'll get about 5 warnings if you travel w-e or the other way about aircraft at your X, type unknown, etc. That's because people don't talk to ATC anymore... You can bust through airspace and as long as they don't know who you are you're OK.

So now you'll have paranoid pilots not bothering to talk to atc, because some idiot thinks he should be Mr. Police man and report everything to the cops... We've already cut down our communications because we don't like NavCan, but hey, sure, why not.

Are you saying, we should listen to Twr, gnd, tml, and if we hear them drunk, "or we think" we should dispatch 9/11 to their locations????

If cops wanted to catch drunks so badly, and the gov't was serious about zero tolerance, I'll tell you a little tiddly wink, those 8 cruisers and 20 cops they block one off ramp, they could send 1 to 8 bars, and stop every person leaving......

Don't be naive in thinking the gov't gives a shit about drunk driving and if they don't care, how about the ATCers who are NOT PAID TO THINK stfu.

Kilo-Kilo · Post by **Kilo-Kilo** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:11 am

Doc wrote:I flew an Ercoupe from YWG to YQT (IFR) one dark night several years ago. Thought the controlers got a bit of a kick out of my 70kt ground speed...

An Ercoupe equipped for IFR? Where did they fit everything? Do you have any pictures of the panel?

Jaques Strappe · Post by **Jaques Strappe** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:43 pm

Doc wrote:I flew an Ercoupe from YWG to YQT (IFR) one dark night several years ago.

There is the answer, no wonder they called the cops!!

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 2:12 pm

cpl_atc wrote:
cyyz wrote: these guys(MORONIC ATC) think(USE THEIR LIMITED BRAIN POWER) they're king shit and will report anything just so they can get a promotion, little do they know it's a "SENIORITY BASED SYSTEM" so a loser with 2 years is going to be stuck in the shitty postings.... Ah well, navcan, hires the worst, and trains them to be even better. =))))
What are you talking about? What promotions are available to controllers as a result of reporting incidents? Will I get a gold star on my cheque? Nobody told me about this.
It is painfully obvious that you have little or no clue about the operation of the ANS, so in future, how about shutting your trap instead of making random, ridiculous statements like those you've made in this thread.

Tard, try to read, I said, they are idiots who THINK they will get a gold star for reporting it, but it's based on Seniority(DATE OF HIRE), so the idiot with 1 year[of service] is bottom of the totem pole(metaphor) and he ain't gonna move up any faster by trying to get those gold stars....

So lets recoupe, you guys think you're the police, and you've stopped providing the service that you're paid to do and all you do now is report useless bs, like someone touching the hold line or some one who you think is drunk, in the mean time, I'm calling FSS 5 times b4 I get a response, because you're busy with sh9t that NEED NOT CONCERN YOU. And you all probably J-walk, or speed or don't do full stops, wonder how many of you turn yourselves in for those crimes??? Self righteous hero's that break the law but think they're "all that" for reporting a dyslexic pilot who you thought(because you ain't trained to KNOW) was drunk....

ywg-atc · Post by **ywg-atc** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 2:39 pm

cyyz, thanks for the laugh, I needed that.

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:08 pm

ywg-atc wrote:cyyz, thanks for the laugh, I needed that.

No problem. =)

But seriously, do the manops say, "call cops if pilot "sounds" intoxicated" if they do, by all means do so, but if they don't why and more importantly how dare you go out of your way to do something which you're not supposed to, but when I need something, "sorry not in my job description...."

PS. I rarely have problems with my ATCers, and I'm usually so tired I don't know what I'm doing or saying to them 1/2 the time, and they have yet to call the cops on me... I love those that control my sky....

Doc · Post by **Doc** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:16 pm

These self centred pricks ever call the COPS on me...I had BETTER be pissed to the eyelids...or I WILL sue your ass! And you can bloody count on it! It is NOT ATC's job to be ratting on pilots with no tangible PROOF whatsoever! How would you like the RCMP knocking on your door because some PILOT thought you sounded "drunk"????? Pull your heads out of your ass!

SierraPoppa · Post by **SierraPoppa** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 6:05 pm

Doc wrote:These self centred pricks ever call the COPS on me...I had BETTER be pissed to the eyelids...or I WILL sue your ass! And you can bloody count on it! It is NOT ATC's job to be ratting on pilots with no tangible PROOF whatsoever! How would you like the RCMP knocking on your door because some PILOT thought you sounded "drunk"????? Pull your heads out of your ass!

...and a very good evening to you too.

ywg-atc · Post by **ywg-atc** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 6:43 pm

Doc, 2 laughs in 1 day, awesome! You're so cool. Wasn't this calling the cops thing your tale to begin with?

Treetops · Post by **Treetops** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:10 pm

Had a friend CADORed for a rejected takeoff once. He was at the hold short line had a problem could not turn around so he taxied down the runway back to the ramp(small town with FSS) and they reported it as a rejected takeoff. If that is not a total waste of time and money I don't know what is.

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:10 pm

cpl_atc wrote: Turns out the moron was having a control problem and yet did not advise ATC of anything. So what is the controller supposed to do? Ignore it and wait until the guy does it again and kills a planeload of people?

Maybe they could have asked him, "hey are you in trouble can we offer any assistance???"

Like the MP3 someone put up with the guy who went into IMC and then a spiral dive, and luckily that ATCer didn't think, "oh, hey he sounds scared, he must have been high to go imc and into a spiral, I'll call the cops" no he actually told the pilot what to do, neither of which were in his job description by the way. But luckily he asked and told him how to fix it...

It seems like he did IGNORE it,

"XXXX turn left, XXX turn left...." goes onto the phone and calls cops...

Instead of "XXX turn left, XXX turn left, XXX you having problems??? ABC can you call XXX on Freq and see if he can here us, or try another freq to reach him..."

But whatever, some people want to play the hero.....

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:11 pm

Treetops wrote:Had a friend CADORed for a rejected takeoff once. He was at the hold short line had a problem could not turn around so he taxied down the runway back to the ramp(small town with FSS) and they reported it as a rejected takeoff. If that is not a total waste of time and money I don't know what is.

ROFL.... Want to hit some of them with a stick....

phillyfan · Post by **phillyfan** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:50 pm

The real lesson her is that when you fly drunk don't go into a control zone

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 4:10 pm

phillyfan wrote:The real lesson her is that when you fly drunk don't go into a control zone

lol, and don't file a flight plan either, the FSSer(FICer?) might think you're drunk too...

The Velvet Fog · Post by **The Velvet Fog** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:24 pm

cyyz

Playing with toy airplanes does not make you a pilot. Try thinking ...then typing.

Mel

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:31 pm

The Velvet Fog wrote:cyyz

Playing with toy airplanes does not make you a pilot. Try thinking ...then typing.

Mel

FLY FIRST.

Type first...

Thinking is second... But maybe they teach it differently down south...

. ._ · Post by **. ._** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 10:59 am

The Velvet Fog wrote:cyyz

Try thinking ...then typing.

Mel

There's no time to think on AvCanada. If you think, you're dead.

-istp

The Velvet Fog · Post by **The Velvet Fog** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 12:52 pm

Nice one! Sounds like life on YYZ ground

Mel

lilfssister · Post by **lilfssister** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 2:25 pm

Sooooooooo...let me get this straight in case it ever happens to me.

If I suspect that a pilot is impaired/impeded in some way (drunk, hypoxia, had a stroke, is being hijacked, whatever), then you want me NOT to tell anyone?