My gosh, this guy has terrible judgment on so many levels…
In this post:
British Airways A380 pilot has wild Johannesburg layover
A British Airways Airbus A380 first officer has been fired, after he bragged to a friend about the scandalous layover he had in Johannesburg, where he did cocaine (and more).
On August 27, 2023, the man (who is a married father) was texting a flight attendant friend of his, seemingly bragging about the layover he was having in South Africa. According to the texts, he was at a nightclub, and met two local guys, a Welsh woman, and a Spanish woman. Here’s what happened, per the texts:
- “We all walk (stagger) back up to the hotel bar for ‘one last one before bed'”
- “Welsh and one of these guys is getting on very well, but she’s told him that I’m her boyfriend”
- “Couple of drinks in the bar, bit of snogging, and then we’re somehow all on our way to this dude’s flat”
- “Welsh has decided that I should actually be her boyfriend — Spanish has hooked up with one of the two local lads and is having her t**s sucked on their sofa”
- “I’ve lost my shirt somewhere and one of the local lads produces a plate with a few lines of coke”
- “So then there’s a debate about whose chest is the best to do a bump off”
- “That’s the story of how I ended up snorting coke off a girl’s t**s in Joburg”
- “Stayed the night with Welsh, sh***** her for ages (I guess the coke played a part) and then was so f**** I couldn’t even lift my head until gone 2”
His flight attendant colleague wasn’t impressed, seemingly, and reported him to the company. As a result, British Airways flight BA56 from Johannesburg (JNB) to London (LHR) had to be canceled, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.
The pilot was flown back to London the following day as a passenger. He was then tested for drugs, and when he tested positive for cocaine, he was fired.
What a way to ruin your career…
Admittedly pilots are only human, and many of them like to have fun. However, when you’re a pilot, there are some areas where should be zero tolerance for misbehavior, and this is clearly one of those:
- It’s reckless and shows horrible judgment to be this “out of it” when you’re about to pilot the world’s biggest plane full of passengers
- If someone is okay with acting this way once, I have to imagine they’re okay doing it more than once
- What almost shows equally bad judgment is how the guy bragged to a colleague about it, thinking they’d be impressed, or something; clearly he has no regard for the rules that airline employees have to abide by, or else he would have realized this is a stupid thing to brag about
I feel really bad for this guy’s wife and child, because this must be devastating for them. Not only is this embarrassing and irresponsible on the pilot’s part, but he has also lost his livelihood. Being a pilot is a pretty stable career in terms of employment, but it’s not exactly a transferable skill if you get fired.
Bottom line
A British Airways Airbus A380 first officer has been fired after he bragged to a colleague about quite an “adventure” on a layover in Johannesburg, which involved doing coke, and a lot more. The flight attendant he was bragging to ratted him out to the company, so the flight was canceled, and the guy ended up being flown home the next day and drug tested. When he tested positive, he was fired.
Kudos to the flight attendant for doing the right thing and reporting him. If you’re willing to bend the rules once in a situation like this, odds are that you’d bend them again in the future.
What do you make of this British Airways pilot story?
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.
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.
Whoever leaked the information, should be acquired 24hrs security
Flight Radar 24 doesn't show any cancelled BA56 ops in late August. Hmmm.
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.
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.
@Ben - When/where this type of news is an exclusive reported by mainstream media, it's customary to quote the source.
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 this story what was the point of saying he was a married father? Is that a professional or character condition? What is the point?
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.
‘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?
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.
Lol, you funny. Always the moral concept and the downgrade of the women. ‘Us the wives’ expect from ‘them the husbands’ :)
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.
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
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?
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...
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.
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.
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...
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.
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...
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
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...
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.
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...
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.
Even a CDL driver would have their license revoked under the circumstances.
Why, if the person is not intoxicated at work?
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.
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.
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.
That flight attendant may have potentially saved all those pax lives.
What happens in the City of Gold stays in the City of Gold?!?
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.
Yes - under UK 261 (the UK's equivalent to EU261 since Brexit). It's a UK airline flying to the UK
And that’s all you think of. Sad
No it's not, just everything else has already been mentioned by other commentors. no need to duplicate.
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.
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...
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.