I’m sorry, but if you show up impaired after getting an appropriate nights sleep (8 hours uninterrupted sleep opportunity comes to mind) you must have been pretty damned polluted when you turned out the light. The idea you can’t have a beer or a glass of wine with dinner on a layover is ridiculous. Power drinking however has no place on a layover.

Thats a bit of an old wives tail and might refer more to the legal side. It’s more of a case by case basis. There have also been many pilots relapse and still get another chance. I know one who went through the program 3 times. Self reporting and entering the program can give a pilot more options than if it is mandatory following an incident.
Alcohol is a serious drug addiction but because it’s legal is often not viewed in the same light as other addictions. Most pilots are intelligent enough to know if they have an alcohol issue but just won’t quite acknowledge it and taking that step to self report is very difficult. If you pack a bottle for a trip or feel the need to consume alcohol almost every day it might be time for some self reflection. My family has a terrible record with alcohol which has kept me cautious. Most alcoholics are blissfully unaware of the effects their drinking has on their family. Pilots at Delta are very lucky to have the HIMS program. Getting those who need it into the program is the hard part.

HIMS is a program to get an individual into recovery, keep their medical and use their certificates.

Depending how one enters HIMS at Delta there are three basic outcomes after the successful completion of treatment

Keep your job

Get fired, but get job back once you have regained medical and/or certificates

Get fired

Delta will always pay for a pilots treatment no matter which of those three circumstances.

Generally speaking, an individual entering HIMS like this falls unders the second course.

heard the same. False positive, but they had already removed her and the damage was done.

Normally I align with your world view OOfff, but on this one it comes across as a bit prickly and silly. This one really isn't misogynic. It could be argued as relevant due to the majority of pilots being male, hence the reference to gender.
Not that my opinion on this event is worth a hill of beans, but I don't see anything 'there' on this one.

I haven’t logged in here in years but I had to for this…..

False positive.

She was removed by authorities so there was no choice but to take action on the flight.

Multiple tests. Multiple negatives.

She was held an insanely long time and released.

False positive.

But the damage is done thanks to then “news”.

Except it doesn't matter at all if the pilot was male or female or minority or white. The person was intentionally not identified so other than using pronouns to describe him or her, the gender has literally no bearing on this.

Thankfully, this may have turned out to be a false positive.

sooo she’s getting a big pay day from someone

I agree that gender has no bearing on incidents like this. “Pilot” or “crew member” would have sufficed.

As an employee of a reputationally hard drinking airline, the days of old are mostly gone—but it doesn’t take much to get in trouble these days. We all know the textbook measures for the various “what if” scenarios but many still get tagged, some needlessly so.

I have empathy for these situations—in this case a lawsuit may be forthcoming.

By all means, if you need help please get it. That goes for addiction, stress, physical health etc. You are too valuable to needlessly suffer!