Working for the airlines was a lot of fun. When people would ask if I enjoyed my job, my standard reply was: "I am sure it looks like we are having fun most of the time... But we are having more fun than you know."
Most flight crew members were very social and many lived on the wild side. It was a lot like the movies or maybe like the TV show that was made at "Seattle Grace Hospital". The airline world was a lot like that show. I always felt like about 90% of the crew members walked the straight and narrow line... But then, I was always a little out of step with the wilder crowd... It was wilder than I thought.
Alcohol was present on all layovers. The FAA rule is... No alcohol within 8 hours of your duty time... we called it: "8 hours bottle to throttle". Of course person could stop drinking 8 hours prior to flying and still be impaired when it was time to fly. The blood alcohol limit for driving in Texas is .08 and the FAA limit for flying it is .04. In the 90's random drug testing came along and was followed shortly there after by random alcohol testing. If a pilot tests positive for alcohol (.04 or higher) or drugs on a random test he is fired... no recourse... This is the only case were the union can't save your job. A BAC of .02 will get you a talking to and a little time off.
I know of one Captain who was to be random drug tested and he refused the test and went straight to the Chief Pilots office and asked to cash in all of his 401k and then said goodbye... very sad. I don't think many have been caught in any of the random tests. The FAA finally started reducing the frequency because no one was testing positive.
That being said there are quite a few that went into alcohol recovery programs. The peer pressure on partying is quite strong.
There were many divorces in the airline business. There were many second marriages between pilots and flight attendants. Some pilots carried on full a time affairs with one or more flight attendants. One pilot I knew did so very openly... His wife put up with it. There were many others who carried on wherever and whenever they could. Some single pilots... Stayed single...
There are many stories I could tell about the wilder side of things but I will just tell couple that I consider the classic stories.
The pilot had been carrying on with a certain flight attendant and one night she tied him up in the bed... nude... I am sure this must have been a voluntary thing because he was much larger than her. She left him there like that. The next morning the pilot didn't show in the lobby for the van ride to the airport. The other pilot called his room... no answer. The other pilot got security to let him into the room where they found the pilot still tied to the bed. Pretty embarrassing... but that is not the end of the story. Months later the pilots wife was traveling and stayed in a crew hotel and just happened to ride the crew van to the airport the next morning. There are lots of stories told on the crew van and on this day the above story was told and it included the Captains name... that Captain was the husband of the wife quietly sitting in the van...
Of course other stories had sadder and more troubling endings. One morning in Oklahoma City I arrived in the lobby early as always. There was a very pretty very young flight attendant there in a very sad mood. I tried to cheer her up and she burst into tears and the story came out. She had dinner with a certain Captain that was a known ladies man and they had drinks and she drank too much and she ended up in his room... she was barely 19 years old he was about 40.
I always considered my crew members as family and it was my job to take care of them. Being a Dad of 3 beautiful daughters I was very protective of the flight attendants. After the above incident I became more of a chaperone and I would lecture like they were my own daughters.
I know of one Captain who was to be random drug tested and he refused the test and went straight to the Chief Pilots office and asked to cash in all of his 401k and then said goodbye... very sad. I don't think many have been caught in any of the random tests. The FAA finally started reducing the frequency because no one was testing positive.
That being said there are quite a few that went into alcohol recovery programs. The peer pressure on partying is quite strong.
There were many divorces in the airline business. There were many second marriages between pilots and flight attendants. Some pilots carried on full a time affairs with one or more flight attendants. One pilot I knew did so very openly... His wife put up with it. There were many others who carried on wherever and whenever they could. Some single pilots... Stayed single...
There are many stories I could tell about the wilder side of things but I will just tell couple that I consider the classic stories.
The pilot had been carrying on with a certain flight attendant and one night she tied him up in the bed... nude... I am sure this must have been a voluntary thing because he was much larger than her. She left him there like that. The next morning the pilot didn't show in the lobby for the van ride to the airport. The other pilot called his room... no answer. The other pilot got security to let him into the room where they found the pilot still tied to the bed. Pretty embarrassing... but that is not the end of the story. Months later the pilots wife was traveling and stayed in a crew hotel and just happened to ride the crew van to the airport the next morning. There are lots of stories told on the crew van and on this day the above story was told and it included the Captains name... that Captain was the husband of the wife quietly sitting in the van...
Of course other stories had sadder and more troubling endings. One morning in Oklahoma City I arrived in the lobby early as always. There was a very pretty very young flight attendant there in a very sad mood. I tried to cheer her up and she burst into tears and the story came out. She had dinner with a certain Captain that was a known ladies man and they had drinks and she drank too much and she ended up in his room... she was barely 19 years old he was about 40.
I always considered my crew members as family and it was my job to take care of them. Being a Dad of 3 beautiful daughters I was very protective of the flight attendants. After the above incident I became more of a chaperone and I would lecture like they were my own daughters.
No comments:
Post a Comment