If you were to drink a bottle of whatever alcohol you prefer, fly an airliner with 300+ people on board, and you kill them all if you c*ck up, it's much more severe, which is why the jail sentence, IN MY OPINION, BASED ON MY MORALS, TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION THAT I AM NOT THE LAW, NOR AM I A LAWYER, should be increased to match.

So a pilot who was drunk on a 747 with 100 passengers on board should get a lesser sentence than if there 300 on board?

Emphasize mine.

He didn't actually endanger someone.

 

Getting in your car drunk and being caught drunk before you'd actually begin driving wouldn't have you punished drunk driving would it? About to do something isn't basis to convict someone for what he was about to do.

 

 

Just some fuel for the fire ( ):

 

According to German law driving a car starts with the driver sitting in the driver's seat and the ignition key inserted. Pls. note that it's NOT required to actually start the engine.

 

When does a pilot start a flight/start controlling a plane? Pre-flight checks are compulsory for the flightdeck crew; a prerequisite for commencing the flight, so to speak. Mistakes could be made, having consequences for the safety of the flight.

 

And yes, I agree, fatigue is a major, but hardly taken seriously no-go item in RW aviation.

To be honest 9 months in jail for such offense seems quite a lot compared to what he would have gotten in my country...

 

Here someone who has been involved in really serious crimes such as manslaughter can get out from the jail in just 2 years if he/she is young enough and has no previous history of serious crime... Our legal system is a mess and totally different from what most ordinary people would see as "justice". 

But he hadn't actually put anyone's life at risk. he could only be charged with what he'd done.

 

Thankfully, it doesn't work that way, at least here.  If we were to catch somebody coming into the airport with a bomb in their suitcase even before going through ticketing and security, he'd still be charged with the attempt, which carries all the same penalties as a successful attack except execution.  We've given sentences of life without parole to a number of people just for conspiracy to conduct terrorist attacks.

 

Likewise, if you get into the driver's seat of your car while drunk and start the engine, you do not have to drive an inch to be charged with a DUI.

 

Regards

It's the same here in the UK, you have to be in the drivers seat witht the keys in your possession. In all honesty I'm not sure how exactly it is enforced. I know people who have been out had too much to drink and then slept in the car.

 

 

So a pilot who was drunk on a 747 with 100 passengers on board should get a lesser sentence than if there 300 on board?

 

Now you're just being pedantic.

You understood my point. When you're killing yourself, that's your problem.

As soon as other people are involved, it's a different matter.

When we stop caring about laws and start punishing for "morality",we are in real trouble....And based on whose morality,s??

 

Agree 100%

What is his punishment , in reality ?  Does anyone expect him to be taken back by the airline ?  I would't be surprised if his days as a commercial pilot are finished.

Rather more than 9 months.

 

Brian Newman.

Just 9 months? For putting the lives of 300-odd people at risk? That's... a lot less than I'd imagined.

 

 

I think the pay pilots get is criminal let alone alcohol (oh, that's a topic for another time).

 

As far as his career goes he may not loose his job.  Who knows what Pakistan's standards are plus they hate western nations anyway...

Under the rule of law you can only be charged according to the law - not according any view of morality.

 

For example in the UK:

 

It's against the law to for a pilot to be over the limit, which is what the pilot was charged with

 it's against the law to attempt to cause an explosion, which is why someone carrying a bomb into an airport can be charged.

 it's against the law to be in charge of a car while over the limit regardless of whether you are driving or not. Even if the car's parked and the driver's asleep he can still be charged if the keys are in the car.

 

the practical point is that it's straightforward to prove in court that someone's over the limit. It's not so easy to prove that life was endangered.

 

 
 

someone's over the limit. It's not so easy to prove that life was endangered.

So being over the limit   and  doing  pre flights is not putting life in  danger, so what happens if he missed  some thing  on his walkaround  which causes  the aircraft to crash which results in loss of life. 

So being over the limit   and  doing  pre flights is not putting life in  danger, so what happens if he missed  some thing  on his walkaround  which causes  the aircraft to crash which results in loss of life.

In court you would have to identify something he actually did and then prove that actually endangered life.

 

What if, despite being over the limit, he'd carried out the walk-round and pre-flight checks correctly and subsequently flown the aircraft correctly. No lives would have been endangered.

 

That's why the law's the way it is.

 

 

Under the rule of law you can only be charged according to the law - not according any view of morality.

 

You just don't seem to understand that I said it's my opinion, I'm not charging anyone, I AM NOT THE LAW.

******* Christ, try and absorb the fact that I'm not saying that the man must be punished ACCORDING TO MY MORALITY.

 

 

No lives would have been endangered.

 

Lives would've been endangered because the man was flying while inebriated.

 

Are you okay with Drinking and Driving if the person get's home safely? I'm not, because he endangered a number of people on the way to his home.

 

 

You just don't seem to understand that I said it's my opinion, I'm not charging anyone

 

My reply was not to you.

 

 

 

Are you okay with Drinking and Driving if the person get's home safely? I'm not, because he endangered a number of people on the way to his home.

 

 

 No he wouldn't if the roads were deserted.  That's why the offence has to be being over the limit.

I think the pay pilots get is criminal let alone alcohol (oh, that's a topic for another time).

 

As far as his career goes he may not loose his job.  Who knows what Pakistan's standards are plus they hate western nations anyway...

 

Dillon,  PIA is a moslem airline and are not going to tolerate alcohol intake by crew, even though it almost certainly happens as this case illustrates.

 

Brian Newman.