I'm not saying it's an excuse. I'm just saying there are many, many cases with alcoholics whereby they don't realize they've drank as much as they have, and don't believe they are under the influence. Denial is a very pronounced symptom of alcoholism. This is what happened with Joe Balzer: in his book he acknowledges that he drank a few beers but there was no way he believed he was even close to the limit. In fact he NEVER believed he was an alcoholic.

If you've never been an alcoholic, it's very easy to say "just quit" and criticize. Instead of doing that, put yourselves in their shoes for a minute and try and visualize the denial that would exist.

Again - I'm not excusing this pilot's behavior. Rather, I'm using what I've learned about the disease of alcoholism and providing a possible explanation as to why maybe he didn't recognize that he was over the limit.