British Airways Sacks A380 Pilot Who Did Drugs On Layover, Bragged About It

I wonder if the airline claimed the plane went tech or how they communicated him he would pax home, did he travel knowing what was coming or was this a surprise once he landed? Did the FA friend leak / sell the text message details to the press? Glad they spoke up but odd that the series of messages made their way into print.

If you absolutely must 'misbehave' do it on your time off when you've taken a lengthy holiday with a solid two weeks to recover and get everything out of your system. Not worth your career and all that was invested to get into the second seat on The Whale. Very sad for the family and terribly humiliating for him.

Glad he was reported. Most likely not have been had drugs or alcohol not been involved. Clearly fearful of the implications and a high probability he has done this before.

All passengers would be entitled to EU261 compensation at least

Would they? Even though they're not flying to the EU?

even though UK is not part of EU, they have the same rule. Some people call it UK261 since they left the EU.

What happens in the City of Gold stays in the City of Gold?!?

That flight attendant may have potentially saved all those pax lives.

And that’s all you think of. Sad

Assuming he wasn't under the influence of cocaine at duty time, does it matter what he did at the weekend? If he is allowed to drink when not on duty I feel they need to should be forced to show his actions could effect safety before firing him. He wasn't fired for rules effecting bottle to throttle so I doubt it is possible the cocaine could be putting him in an altered state.

In this story what was the point of saying he was a married father? Is that a professional or character condition? What is the point?

Are you serious? One of the things you mentioned is a legal substance, the other isn't.

If you can't give up the drugs, don't become a pilot. I have a friend who was a huge weed smoker back in the day, he won't even take a single hit now. Not worth jeopardizing his pilot career that he loves

Don't really care about his proclivities, that's between him and his wife.

But damn, dude: 500+ people about to be in your care, and you're bragging to OTHER EMPLOYEES (whose lives may have also been in your care) that you're so tore-up that you don't even know where your belongings are?

Yeah, not sad to see you no longer in the skies.

In what world do you think an airline would tolerate someone testing positive for illegal stimulant, not only at the time of, but days after they were scheduled to fly?

And even if by some miracle one did, how exactly do you think their insurer(s) would feel about it?

Come on...

No it's not, just everything else has already been mentioned by other commentors. no need to duplicate.

Everyone knows that there's a pervasive social expectation that "married fathers don't behave this way," just as everyone equally knows that many such men choose to do so regardless.

Now, what no one apparently knows: is why you feel the need to feign indignation over something that, well, everyone already knows.

The legally status of various substances doesn't change their effect on safety. Alcohol is illegal in certain countries but that does not mean that pilots can't drink off duty in others. So why not?

I aside from irrational media coverage I can't think of my good reason for the airline to care. Nor for that matter insurance companies. Insurance provide coverage for airlines that allow their pilots to drink off duty. How is this any different?

"I can't think"

So far, that's the only logical thing you've stated.

@Ben - When/where this type of news is an exclusive reported by mainstream media, it's customary to quote the source.

Yes - under UK 261 (the UK's equivalent to EU261 since Brexit). It's a UK airline flying to the UK

Imagine being such a dipshit you think the airline is the problem when a pilot shows up to work with coke in his system.

The layover was not possibly long enough for this pilot to be fully sober, period. On top of that, popping positive on a drug test is an instant revocation of his CAA certificate, so even if he wasn't flagrantly in violation of the BA drug policy he agreed to when he accepted the job, he couldn't fly anymore.

BA's drug policy applies to all staff, even baggage handlers, and was negotiated with all four of its unions.

This guy is a useless cunt who shouldn't ever be near a piece of heavy equipment, much less a passenger airplane, and you're a Class A dumbass for trying to come to his defense.

I think the point was, not only was he behaving badly as an employee, but as a husband too. Most of us wives do expect monogamy as part of the deal.

Even a CDL driver would have their license revoked under the circumstances.

You're avoiding making a meaningful argument because you can't think of one. That should cause you to question why you believe what you believe.

Why is it a problem he has come (or rather coke metabolites) in his system? If he had drunk in the previous days it would also be possible to test for that. Would that mean the passengers were in danger? So again. Slowly. If he is not under the influence of the drug what is the problem? We allow pilots to consume intoxicants all the time. We just ask they not be under the influence when working.
Please can people responding actually engage with that instead of calling me names or just repeating what they have already said

Why, if the person is not intoxicated at work?

Insane, I have never even smoked weed, and have no idea where I could even buy coke. Yet people like us wish we could get through all the hoops of flight school and licensing while this F face recklessly endangers hundreds of passengers. Go figure.

I mean, coke use aside, it seems like he very well may have been drunk still when his flight was scheduled to depart if he actually partook in the activities as described (the exact details are missing from the story though). You say he's allowed to drink when not on duty, but that's kind of stretching the truth--there are restrictions on how long before flights you can drink and in any case if you still have alcohol in your blood at takeoff that is not permitted.

Flight Radar 24 doesn't show any cancelled BA56 ops in late August. Hmmm.

Every bit of your idiocy was already "engaged with", you're just too obtuse to understand. You'd have to be braindead to be stupid enough to want cocaine users flying your airplane, but I guess you qualify for that.

It's always a problem when an employee violates a contract, particularly one that exists to guarantee passenger safety.

Cocaine is illegal in the U.K. and S.A. There's no such thing as "responsible use" of illegal drugs.

This pilot showed up to work the next day, and from his own description of his state its entirely obvious that he was not sober. He also mixed his cocaine use with alcohol which forms a longer lasting psychoactive metabolite (cocaethylene) than cocaine alone. It's simply not possible that he was not in an impaired state, which is why he was removed from the flight at massive cost to his employer.

If his employer hadn't fired him, any passenger with two brain cells would avoid the airline and/or sue them for allowing him to continue working, which they couldn't even do because the CAA immediately deemed him unworthy of flight and pulled his certificate.

If you want to fly A380s, don't use cocaine, and absolutely don't go on benders on layovers.

Whoever leaked the information, should be acquired 24hrs security

I have always imagined cocaine users fly my plane. Why wouldn't they? You come across as incredibly naive I must say. Do you realize how wide spread cocaine usage is, not least among professionals? London is the cocaine capital of Europe. 200,000 doses are taken daily, with most users being middle class. If you are interacting with someone in a highly skilled job and they in London you would do well to assume they use cocaine.
Your statement that there is no such thing as responsible illegal drug usage is simply moronic. Literally hundreds of thousands of pilots use alcohol everyday despite it being illegal in many countries. Legal status has nothing to do with safety. In fact I would prefer a pilot who used cocaine yesterday and is clear headed vs someone who is hungover but has no alcohol in their blood stream.
There seems to be no indication this person attempted to fly a plane while intoxicated. Infact given they were not arrested it seems likely they did not.
I think you may be confusing a public relations problem with a genuine safety issue. Almost all pilots are moderate drug users in some form and aviation is very safe. So perhaps calm down a little.

You're quite right about needing to have a gap between drinking and flying and I did mention "bottle to throttle". The laws and policies vary around the world.
That said he appears not to have attempted to have flown a plane whilst unfit as he has not been charged with any crime and that is taken quite seriously by authorities just about anywhere, and rightly so.

Lol, you funny. Always the moral concept and the downgrade of the women. ‘Us the wives’ expect from ‘them the husbands’ 🙂

‘What no one apparently knows’? Hm I have everyone trying to understand me, that’s neat.
So what if it was a married mother? And a single dude? Or a childless widow? Would they also be mentioned?

Well, it’s daily and if you look at BA56 history for the last 10 days in August in FR24, it goes 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31.
Spot the missing number.

You're a very special kind of idiot. 200,000 doses per day in a city of almost 9 million people means only a tiny fraction of them are doing it. Assuming everyone you meet is on coke sounds like projection from someone who doesn't think he has a problem.

Any pilot drinking in a country where it is illegal is not drinking responsibly.

And the rest of your post, like everything that came before it is pure idiocy.

What a damm irresponsible fool, I am flying overseas soon, just glad he is no sitting up front on my flight. The Airline didn't have any options.

I feel very sorry for his family. Totally irresponsible ! My daughter is a flight attendant with British Airways and it horrorfies me to think she has crew members around her like this, and especially a pilot. They should be kept close attention to when off base.