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I am not a pilot, but my father was and I have a brother who is. When my dad flew, up until the early '00s and past the WTC attacks, there were only yearly medi
by jordigh 12y ago
I am not a pilot, but my father was and I have a brother who is. When my dad flew, up until the early '00s and past the WTC attacks, there were only yearly medical exams. No psych exams. Like many other pilots, my brother is an alcoholic, and this has given him trouble with some airlines, so he has taken jobs in the Arab world and east Asia (we're Mexican, from Mexico). As far as I know, the airlines have never offered him direct help for his alcoholism.
Btw, my brother knew some details about the accident before they were public news, I assume there must be some pilot grapevine where more details about the accident must be shared. Like I imagine most other pilots must be, he's very shaken by the incident. It's a matter of professional pride amongst the pilot community, I assume.
My father would sometimes be called as an expert witness for blackbox analysis. As a child, I remember him falling into deep depression whenever he had to do that, and he was always given a couple weeks' vacation time whenever that happened.
- caf 12y agoThere's actually a forum called the Professional Pilots Rumour Network: http://www.pprune.org/ http://www.pprune.org/
- jordigh 12y agoThanks, I didn't know this. There's some fascinating speculation from two days ago about what happened in this thread: http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/558654-airbus-a320-crashed-southern-france.html http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/558654-airbus-a320-crashe...
- osullivj 12y agoYour brother is an alcoholic in recovery, or a 'functioning' alcoholic? Don't the airlines breathalyse pilots before they fly? An old school friend who's now a commercial pilot told me they're not allowed to drink for 24hrs before flying. I guess if there are no actual checks they can ignore the rules til they get caught...
- jordigh 12y agoHe's been... all kinds of alcoholic. He always was able to stop drinking two days before his flights, but I think he slipped once. I don't know if they breathalyse him. He doesn't like to tell me details about it. From what I can tell, he's doing better now. Alcoholism is very common with pilots, though. This much I know, because I met many pilots through him and my father, and boy do they enjoy their drinks. In my dad's time (he was "almost" a WW2 veteran, he was gonna fly on the second Mexican squadron, but the war ended before Mexico sent that squadron), being a pilot was comparable to being a movie star. So much prestige, so much partying. Some of that culture from the middle of the 20th century still lives on, and many pilots still, well, burn bright and burn fast.
- brc 12y agoI have a friend who is a senior pilot with a large airline, and the drinking/hazing/partying stories he told me from his younger years were eye-widening. They generally all try and stay sober for the pre-flight period, but outside of that, especially when not at home, boy do they party. Not sure how much of that still goes on - a lot, I would guess.