How Often Are Pilots Flying Drunk? Another Pilot Reportedly Busted For Partying All Night Ahead Of Morning Flight From Dallas To Tokyo

NY Post - A flight from Texas to Japan had to be canceled after the pilot was quizzed by cops for wild behavior while drinking at an all-night party in his hotel, according to a report.

Japan Airlines canceled the flight from Dallas to Tokyo last Wednesday to check on the mental and physical well-being of the 49-year-old captain, the airline told the Mainichi. The 157 passengers had to be transferred to other flights.

The pilot, who was not otherwise identified, had dined in Dallas with other crew members at around 6 p.m and then continued partying in his hotel, first in the lounge and then his room, the report said.

Police questioned him and warned him not to cause any more problems, according to the airline.

However, the airline would not allow him to fly the next day, and the 1:05 a.m. flight had to be canceled when another pilot could not be found to replace him, the report said.

(I think the NY Post may have a typo in there, according to a screenshot in the article the flight was scheduled to takeoff at 11:05am, not 1:05am. Which is honestly disgusting. How hard is it to read over your writing one time? Do they even have editors at the NY Post? Do your job for me one time..)

How often do you think pilots are flying drunk? Or stoned, faded, cracked out, etc… The life of a pilot is so conducive to partying. Every night you're in a new hotel in a different city, with nobody to tie you down or hold you accountable. Sure, sometimes you'll have to stay a night in Wichita. But other times you'll wind up in Miami. You could find yourself on a three day run of Miami to Las Vegas to New Orleans. What's a pilot to do in that situation? Just go to sleep sober at a responsible hour? Is he supposed to not order 3 hookers and a boatload of blow to his hotel room? That's too much to ask of any man. 

Everything about being a pilot lines up so perfectly for a life of debauchery. Except for one crucial thing. The next morning you have to safely transport hundreds of passengers across the country (potentially the world), at an altitude of 35,000 feet, and a velocity of 600 mph. What a buzzkill.

However, if I were going to defend drunk flying (which I'm not doing), I would say that modern day planes basically fly themselves nowadays. I mean what does a pilot really have to do that's so hard? Flip the ignition switch, drive slowly around the tarmac as they wait in line with a bunch of other planes until it's their turn for takeoff. Then what? Hit a few buttons, punch the gas, pull up on the wheel and point the plane in the right direction. One they're at cruising altitude, then they get some shut eye for a couple hours. Come time to land the bird they're all sobered up. Simple as that. Then clock out, take an Uber to the hotel, and do the same thing all over again in Dallas just like this 49-year old Japanese Airlines pilot did. 

Realistically, you could probably fly commercial across the country with a halfway blacked-out captain + a fully dead co-pilot, and it would still be statistically safer than getting behind the wheel of a car fully sober coming off 9 hours of sleep. But still… don't do that pilots. For any pilots reading this, don't get any ideas. Drunk flying is bad. I'm willing to put my name on that. 

Considering the amount of times you see stories just like this, you have to think we've got a decent amount of drunk (or at least hungover) pilots up in the sky at any given in time. Just a quick Google search yields a handful of stories about pilots who got in trouble for showing up to work or flying a plane under the influence within the last year.

Those are only the pilots who got caught. I don't know the data on this, but I'd guess maybe 1% of pilots who show up drunk or high actually get busted? That's a wild guess, but considering some of these pilots have been flying planes for decades, they'll probably do it without a second thought. Just like the thousands and thousands of drunk drivers who get behind the wheel without hesitation every day.

There's likely not as many drunk pilots as I've worked up in my head to believe, but you know it happens. It makes you wonder if you've ever taken a flight with an inebriated pilot. You'd have no way of knowing. I don't know if this would be too intrusive, or somehow infringing on pilot's rights, but I feel like it wouldn't be that crazy to have all pilots take a quick breathalyzer before every flight. Would that be such a crazy rule to have?

Unless that would bring the airline industry to a screeching halt all together. What if we implement that rule and come to find out that 40% of pilots are severe alcoholics. All of the sudden, we don't have nearly enough pilots to fill the demand for air travel in this country. Plane tickets skyrocket. It now costs $1,300 to fly coach from New York to Chicago. Maybe that's something we don't want to take a peak under the hood of. Maybe we just let sleeping dogs lie when it comes to breathalyzing pilots. Whatever gets my flight to it's destination at the scheduled time

Unless of course it would eventually lead to the United States finally getting off their asses to start working on that national high speed railway system that goes viral every couple of years

When is that going to happen, Joe Biden? Anybody who runs for President and says they're making this a priority gets my vote no questions asked.