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JAL fires co-pilot jailed in UK for drinking excessive alcohol before flight

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Losing your job due to alcohol consumption is really pathetic.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

It’s sad that people see addiction as a moral failing.

It’s a mental health issue and should be treated with rehabilitation and education, not derision and imprisonment.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

2 bottles of wine and more than 1.8 lt of beers?

I wonder how strong the guy should be.

Usually Japanese people do not hold their liquor.

I call any train station as a witness.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

"I hope JAL will take the sentence seriously," Japanese transport minister Keiichi Ishii said in Tokyo.

HA!

"We will consider necessary measures including administrative punishments in light of the ruling."

consider-not actually take

0 ( +1 / -1 )

So prison, deportation, no job, family in japan shamed...terrorist material.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

He should have been fired. Flying a plane drunk with hundreds of people on board is a gross neglect of responsibility. However, there have been others caught doing the same thing and they were not fired. Operating vehicles, planes and machinery will drunk does carry hefty penalties in Japan. However, it is very loosely enforced, which results in many breeches. I saw a taxi driver skull down a 500ml cannif sho-chu outside the convenience store the other night. He got into his cab, turn the available light in and drive off.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Airlines should have onboard breathalizers visible to all and require crew be tested before takeoff.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

He will never fly again anywhere ever. JCAB will pull his license and he won’t get a new one any where else because of his criminal record. Good riddance. What I want to know is what happens to the 2 Captains who knew that he was not fit to fly and were obviously covering for him? The consequences of their obstruction will show how serious JAL is about cleaning this up.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

"You're fired! After you get out of prison and of course are no longer allowed to enter many nations..."

Make no mistake, they're only firing him because he's embarrassed the nation in the world's eyes, which is what it takes for Japan to take action on anything (or reward them with a sporting event).

0 ( +3 / -3 )

A drunk captain should never be allowed to take the wheel. Lucky they caught him in time.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Justice is served well, in Japan Im pretty sure it would be some lip service sentence.. or swept under the rug.

StrangerlandToday  07:45 am JST

It’s sad that people see addiction as a moral failing.

It’s a mental health issue and should be treated with rehabilitation and education, not derision and imprisonment.

Strangerland, agreed, but this is a responsibility failing, that puts lives at risk. They are not jailing him for an assumed alcoholic addiction.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This is very rare for this to come out. It known that most captain drink heavy and still fly the next day because they get the co pilot to take over. The law go like this. After a fight a the captain ( Not both ) will be tested for drinking. Never before. Why. Because take off are not difficult. It full gas until you reach your cruising alt then 3/4 gas once level attitude. After a 4 hour fly the captain can take control if he feel that the night before effects have warn off. Test for drink are very rare but are random and alway taken after the fight.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

I'm glad this happened in the UK. Law enforement and the courts take this sort of thing seriously.

This is very rare for this to come out.

This didn't happen in Japan. That's why.

But a bus driver who transported crew to the aircraft smelt alcohol and alerted airport security officials.

Although it may work with Japanese, no doubt the sempai-kohai system doesn't work with westerners!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Strangerland, agreed, but this is a responsibility failing, that puts lives at risk. They are not jailing him for an assumedalcoholic addiction.

It is, but forced rehab plus maybe some civil service better serves him as well as society. Imprisonment doesn’t do anything.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

If they tested every Pilot before a fight properly , you have no planes taking off. This is not random. This is the culture that has persisted for decades. See how the plane was still able to takeoff with with 2 Pilot instead of 3 pilots. Why have 3 pilots ? Because Pilots drinking to excess on stay overs is a culture that has persisted for decades. See how easy it was to avoid testing prior to fight. To took a piss off bus drive to give the pilot up. I would like to know why the bus driver gave him up. Like this bus driver has given up other piss pilots ? I doubt it. He would not have a job if he did. I bet the Bus driver still hold a wartime grudge.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Unfortunately, failure in Japan, is looked on as a fault rather than just a mistake. Once a person makes a mistake they are definitely not going to do this again, so I see this pilot as being safer than any other others. If I was JAL, I'd just put him on the domestic routes where he can return home every night. There are lots of airlines looking for pilots so he will be able to find a job and more caring organization to work for.

Unfortunately is correct. However, as an educator, I encourage my students and my kids to make mistakes while learning from them and taking risks. I tell them, if you don't mess up, you will never learn about yourself and be successful.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The question I ask is : would that pilot have got into a car and drove in Japan having consumed that much alcohol.

Answer : most probably not.

By the way. I think the sentence is very fair.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

No airline will touch him even if his licence isn’t revoked as the reputational damage when it came out they employed him would be too great.

John-san, nope, just a sensible guy doing the sensible thing; so if he could spot and smell how pissed the pilot was how come the other two pilots didn’t, in the close proximity of the flight deck it would have been inescapable. With any other airline this would have been a serious dereliction of duty leading to disciplinary action.

The failure to act in this regard speaks volumes. In light of the obvious and repeated failures of the airline to protect passengers perhaps they need to have all routes in to Europe revoked until they can prove a change in corporate culture

3 ( +3 / -0 )

2 bottles of wine and a 6 pack of beer would put me into a bad hangover. I have no doubt that this occurs, but it seems that flying is still incredibly safe. Now if you open the cockpit door and a mass of marijuana smelling smoke poured out like in Cheech and Chong, I would be worried.

Interesting. I'm the complete opposite.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Losing your job due to alcohol consumption is really pathetic.

If he would have been honest about it from the start he would have probably gotten off with a reprimand and no one outside the company would have known about it.

So if there is a silver lining to this incident, because of him changes for the better are going to occur with regards to alcohol consumption and flying!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

JAL it is too little too late!

I don’t trust the company to oversee its problems, so I as a consumer and a long haul traveler will refuse to book JAL for at least two years - the bottom line suffers....

0 ( +1 / -1 )

He would not have a job if he did. I bet the Bus driver still hold a wartime grudge.

always comes down to some anti-japanese excuse, hes a tip try drinking at a bar then driving home in say Australia NZ , UK, they take drink driving very seriously and police it very strictly, automatic licence suspension and heavy fine if caught, pilots in the smame countires with hundred of people lives on the line even more seriously. Now do the same in Japan, of all the years ive been in Japan Ive been stopped and breath checked twice!, and that was a pathetic "breath in my face BS" no breathalizer device as in routing in the same countries I mentioned. Japans policing of intoxicated drivers is pathetic at the best.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

To took a piss off bus drive to give the pilot up. I would like to know why the bus driver gave him up. Like this bus driver has given up other piss pilots ? I doubt it. He would not have a job if he did. I bet the Bus driver still hold a wartime grudge.

This past off bus driver as you put it is a good citizen. He was obviously concerned that am intoxicated pilot was about to be at the controls of a lane full of passengers, about to fly over a city.

The bus driver would logically not be old enough to remember the war. Grow up.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I don’t trust the company to oversee its problems, so I as a consumer and a long haul traveler will refuse to book JAL for at least two years - the bottom line suffers....

No it wont suffer one bit, in fact they will probably make even more money this year and in the near future.

Sorry but your "gesture" wont matter.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

You think not?

I make it a point to let my opinion be known and have already personally let hundreds of people know too....

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I know not, you can let thousands of people know and it still wouldnt matter. JAL is not going to suffer from the loss of your business. Someone else will fill the seats that you would have purchased at your discount rate.

People need to go where JAL flies and their tightening controls will make them look even better, the JAL brand will weather this with no problem.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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