Nope. It’s that medical side that gets you. The 8500-8 that is a felony for lying on. They’ve also begun scouring insurance clearinghouse and other gov (DoD, VA, etc) databases to find the liars, strip them of their certificates, and prosecute them in federal court. Gotta tell the truth.

I personally know someone who was a passenger in a vehicle after a night of heavy drinking. He did the right thing and got a ride home. They were involved in a motor vehicle accident, and he lost consciousness. ER docs did the standard labs, to include BAC (I guess to make sure there weren’t any interactions with the meds they were administering) and it came back just under 0.20.

He had some fairly significant injuries and had to submit the hospital documentation for a special issuance. FAA saw the BAC and immediately determined it to be an indication of alcohol dependency/abuse. Cue the pain train.

I know someone else who never had any legal or employment issues with drinking, but it started to have some personal/family consequences. He voluntarily sought treatment. FAA treated him just like a guy with a 0.28 BAC who hit a van full of nuns and babies—for doing the right thing.

A stupid or illegal act is absolutely not required to end up subject to a 12-18 month loss of medical, tens of thousands of dollars in expenses, and 5-6 years of follow-on monitoring and daily ‘recovery activities’. If I could shout this from the rooftops, I would. It has such a profound and horrific impact on professional aviators.