Originally Posted by
PILOTGUY
Well, when YOU become a Dr., you can work on renaming Alcoholism for the rest of the world.
My father was an alcoholic and a CA for 30 years with a Legacy. He did not drink very often at all...a few times per year. When he did, he was unable to stop. He got caught at the bar of his hotel (1980's) well past the cutoff time and was taken off the flight. Company sent him to rehab for 30 days, came back to the line and never had another drink in his life. He would not even take cough syrup with alcohol in it. Many on here apparently have no knowledge (lack of experience) on this subject.
As for the TSA, if you let them invade your personal space, your fault. Every time this happens, they think they will be the one to catch the next drunk. I have backed them out of my face many, many times as they try and smell for alcohol. I even started taking original (yellow) Listerine just to screw with them sometimes. Always fun to call the supervisor over and ream all who were stupid enough to get involved.
The Police....well you are never REQUIRED to perform a field sobriety test. In a DUI situation, there is nothing you must do. They will probably take you to jail for a blood test, but you can even refuse that. However, IF you refuse the BT in jail, you WILL lose your license for a year. But, no DUI on your record if you were actually drunk. Learn your rights, pay for cab, phone a friend, and never say "I could not do that sober". You just busted yourself.
Or your dad should have had a job in some other industry other than transportation if his disease was so challenging. It sounds from the few sentences you wrote that he was able to control his disease and do his job where others have not.
People make mistakes, we are human. I am of the belief that if you do mess up and show up to the plane drunk you should go to jail and loose you job. It doesn't matter if you are suffering from a disease or plain stupidity, You only get one chance IMO.
My college roommate died last week in a car accident. He was driving down the wrong side of the highway in the early hours of the morning. I have felt both sorrow and anger, because he hit anther vehicle head on and killed four innocent people.