Pilot grounded in drugs, drink inquiry

An airline pilot has been grounded and is under investigation after allegations of alcohol and drug abuse, including the suspected supply of an illegal substance to a female cabin attendant.

The woman, who is understood to have collapsed outside the pilot's home, was taken to hospital after a party in which the pilot allegedly distributed herbal pills and alcohol to his guests.

Although the Red Alert pills were natural herbal products and not illegal, police began an investigation after the Class C-controlled drug benzylpiperazine (BZP) was found in her system.

The pilot survived the police inquiry without facing charges but the Civil Aviation Authority stepped in and suspended his licence in April.

It is investigating whether he is a "fit and proper person" to fly passengers, amid allegations from his employer of drug and alcohol abuse and breaching strict rules on drinking before flying.

He was summarily sacked in May - after having been suspended from duties on full pay for almost a year - but has won interim reinstatement in a non-flying capacity until the Employment Relations Authority holds a hearing in about five weeks to decide whether he was fired unjustifiably.

The ERA has ordered his airline to take him back "on a garden leave basis" for now, after he pleaded financial hardship and said he had been forced to put his home on the market.

The Herald cannot name the pilot, or the airline, despite obtaining full details of the case.

The ERA has suppressed their identities - and its interim determination does not even refer to the man's occupation or the industry in which he works.

The airline refuses to comment but late yesterday, the Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that the man would remain suspended from flying until it completes its investigation into his character and behaviour.

CAA lawyer Sam Jennings said the pilot's licence was suspended after the authority became aware he was, or had been, subject to a police investigation.

The Herald has been told that the cabin attendant was still wearing her airline uniform when the pilot's neighbours noticed her collapsed outside his house in June last year, and called for an ambulance.

But employment authority member James Crichton said in a written determination this week that the airline's evidence of how the drug BZP entered her system was "weak indeed".

As well as being concerned about the pilot's distribution of pills to his guests, the airline said in an internal inquiry after the incident that he was in breach of strict rules prohibiting alcohol consumption while on duty, as he was on standby to fly from 1.30 the next afternoon.

It also indicated concern about his "wellbeing" as a consequence of previous drug and alcohol abuse.

Mr Crichton took issue with how the airline handled the dismissal, saying that previously settled issues had been "dredged up again".

The airline had issued a final written warning to the pilot last October, four months after suspending him.

He stayed on the payroll for seven more months before his dismissal, and little new evidence emerged in that time.

The airline had also referred back to previous incidents in letters to the pilot, which Mr Crichton said amounted to "double jeopardy".

In January last year, it investigated an incident of alcohol abuse, but took no disciplinary action.

Three months later, it received complaints from a family known to the pilot, alleging both alcohol abuse and illegal drug use.

But these were also settled without action, after the pilot accepted he had misused alcohol "as part of his coping mechanism in tragic personal circumstances".

Mr Crichton said that when an employer discovered misconduct but continued a person's employment, that relationship was taken to have been affirmed. "I do not think it inconceivable that [the employee] could be permanently reinstated to [the employer's] service, although I would not put it stronger than that given [the employer's] quite proper concern about safety matters."

Mr Crichton questioned the fairness in the way the employee had been treated. He acknowledged safety concerns, but said this matter was out of the employer's hands "and in the preserve of an independent statutory authority whose obligation it is to determine questions of safety of operation".

- Additional reporting: Michael Dickison


LITANY OF WORRIES

Police have already raised concerns about alcohol abuse in the aviation industry, listing four cases which they said in internal correspondence in December "may be the tip of the iceberg". These cases are historic and are not related to the current case.

CASE 1

Pilot caught drink-driving - for the fourth time - two and a half times over the limit.

CASE 2

Uniformed air hostess caught drink-driving on way to work.

CASE 3

Aircraft engineer caught drink-driving on way to work.

CASE 4

Aircraft engineer with three drink-drive convictions.