satpak77

No aviation attorney. Resolve the DUI first

yimke

You can still fight it, however this is highly looked down upon in the professional world. Why should they trust him with a 10+ million aircraft? I'm not saying it is down the drain for his mistake. But it will hurt his career potential and make hiring MUCH more difficult. This is also a forgiving career though if you know people.

My suggestion, get out while you can. Become an engineer or IT professional.

IDIOTPILOT

If you can keep it from becoming a DUI conviction, do it. With a DUI conviction, the airline can't send you to Canada and a whole lot of other countries. It becomes a burden on them to hire you if they can't send you to the full range of destinations. Some hiring people can be forgiving about your past, but a DUI conviction can literally be an operational burden.

Swedish Blender

As stated earlier, you must get an attorney who does nothing but DUI. They will know all the loopholes. Had a family member(non pilot) get one and called a state police buddy and he told me to do that.

We had talked to a regular attorney prior and he just said you're screwed. The DUI atty cost more, but was well worth it. First hearing the suspended license was reinstated and in the end, the charge was reduced to a traffic violation.

Grumble

He's always going to have to answer yes on any application as to whether he's ever been arrested for DUI or alcohol related offense. No matter what lawyer magic you throw money at, he's looking at a minimum 10 years of squeaky clean behavior before anyone is going to go near him.

Spend your money getting him an engineering degree that will actually provide a living and career options.

citation35hf

Lots of guys out there flying at the majors and regionals with DUIs.

Just don't get another!

How do I know? Worked in flight ops and know about all the guys who can't fly into Canada. (And there's lots) That doesn't account for those who have paid to be rehabilitated by the Canadians or 10 yrs have past and it's forgiven.

Cubdriver

My guess is they got them after establishing their usefulness at an airline and completed a HIMS rehab (human intervention and motivation study). Coming through the front door with a recent DUI is rare to impossible from what I understand.

JamesNoBrakes

And they got them either while already employed and/or back in the day when liability wasn't such a big deal. Hiring somebody like this is seen as a liability these days and a risk that isn't worth taking, even if the person has turned over a new leaf. Back when pilots ran virtually all aspects of airlines they had the ability to turn a blind eye to these things or look at the big picture. HR and business in general now is run, well, like "business", and these are liabilities that could turn around and bite the airline in the rear. "Flight" might be an extreme example, but people sue the airplane manufacturers and airlines for things that weren't even related to the accident and it's just one more thing that a lawyer would be able to use as a wedge against the company.

DUIs and substance abuse are not handled now like they were 20 or 30 years ago. Unfortunately, our society doesn't really deal well with an individual trying to "go forward" after doing something bad like this. It's all geared towards "do not ever do this", which is fine and dandy, but **** does happen and think that some of these people DO want to make up for it. Our society virtually encourages drinking and driving given how little public transportation there is and people drive to and from bars and they tend to think it's normal to have a few drinks with nearly every meal (not everyone, but a very large number of people). Every pilot probably knows dozens if not hundreds of people that are just as guilty as anyone that got a DUI/DWI, they were just lucky and didn't get caught...

USMCFLYR

Or got their job many, many years ago.
Let us know if there have been lots and lots of guys hired at the majors in the last ten years with DUIs. When companies can be selective with hiring then I'd wager that it would be a show stopper. If you can point at a buddy of a buddies girlfriend who got hired and that is your proof that you can still get hired then I suggest you take your retirement saving and play the lottery with it if you believe the extreme outrigger chances are worth the gamble.

In this case the offender is still young. A long record of clean behavior will be a check in the right direction. If the piloting profession does become a sought after commodity once again then that will help too.

Swedish Blender

The current AA application only asks for convictions not arrests. I haven't seen any application that asks for arrests. Grain of salt, I haven't applied anywhere for over 8 years.