Originally Posted by
vagabond
This hypothetical came to me privately, but I thought it has enough general interest for me to post here, scrubbed of personal references. e a slippery slope indeed if the PIC is held liable for events far down the chain.
Not hypothetical. MANY years ago I am driving a Lear 25 and we haul these two guys and a wild woman out of one of the MIA/FLL airports enroute to LAS. Just after we get airborne this pungent odor wafts forward. We advise that we can't fly with that stuff being smoked. They oblige and a few minutes later we hear giggles and snorts. We explain that maybe they need some other form of transportation. They pack the stuff away.
We get them to LAS and they promise no more stuff on the airplane. A friend of mine had spent some time in the islands when the locals founds some seeds in the carpet during a customs visit.
We spend day 1 and day 2 by the pool waiting to take them back to south Florida and we see a gurney go by with what looks like one of our boys. We get a page. "Get to the airport NOW and let's leave!" says the voice. We ask where are we going, "Anywhere.. just get me out of LAS."
We preflight the Lear and decide to head towards ATL. A few minutes later one of our guys shows up sans the wild woman and friend. We take off. No booze. No drugs. No smokes.
We drop the guy off and head back home to ATL. The boss advises the next time we fly them, IF we fly them, no funny stuff or we return and land.
A few weeks later we haul a couple from ATL to MIA and the whole way down they are bangin' away. Not for me to intervene but drugs? Nearest available.