Every Delta passenger onboard Delta flight 205 from Stockholm to New York JFK today is entitled to $705 (600 euros) in cash compensation, after one of the pilots was arrested this morning for failing a breathalyzer test as the plane was “about to take off” and the flight was cancelled.
A police operation took place at Arlanda Airport on Tuesday morning. At 09.15, a pilot was arrested by the police during a check on board an aircraft.
…According to the police, the plane was about to take off from Arlanda when the arrest took place. …According to Aftonbladet, it is a female pilot from the United States.
With 198 seats onboard, that’s $139,590 that Delta is obligated to pay out to passengers under European Union rule EU261, given the length of delayed arrival and distance of the flight. And that doesn’t include the cost of lodging and meals, and disruption to follow-on flights that would have been operated by the aircraft.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency mandates random alcohol testing for flight and cabin crew operating out of EU member states under regulation 2018/1042.
In the fall, two Delta flight attendants working the same Amsterdam departure were arrested after failing a breathalyzer.
Pilot drinking, though, is a challenge all airlines (and regulators) have to grapple with. There was a Delta flight cancelled when the captain was arrested for intoxication in 2023. This happens infrequently, but isn’t unheard of. Earlier this year a Southwest pilot was arrested smelling of booze at security before a flight.
Last year, a Japan Airlines pilot had a big night out in Dallas where he drank with other crewmembers starting around 6 p.m., continued drinking in the hotel lounge, and later in his room. Layover hotel guests were complaining about noise in his room, and police were called at 2 a.m.
In 2019 United pilots flying out of Glasgow to Newark were arrested on intoxication charges and a fully-boarded Delta flight from Minneapolis was cancelled due to an intoxicated pilot. Of course United flight from London was also once delayed to remove a drunk air marshal.
In the U.S., commercial airline pilots have to go at least 8 hours from their last drink prior to flying (“8 hours bottle-to-throttle”) and their blood alcohol limit is .04. A JetBlue pilot was arrested in 2022 for blowing a .17. The only thing you’re prepared to drive at .17 is the porcelain bus. JetBlue’s priority of course is safety. This pilot’s priority may have been getting so tanked he thought he was Gary Busey trying to explain who really killed Bruce Lee.
Once, though, a pilot drank 17 rum and cokes before actually flying from Fargo to Minneapolis (he “fell on the floor before leaving the bar”) while “two other crew members shared seven pitchers of beer.”
Drinking by pilots is a very sensitive subject. American Airlines was even forced to apologize when their outsource inflight magazine depicted pilots mixing cocktails.
Air travel can be a difficult career and drinking and other substance problems get hidden. Pilots with substance abuse problems are often wary of speaking up and seeking help, for fear of being sidelined, despite programs designed to encourage them to do so.
Pilots hide not just alcohol abuse but mental health conditions and that points to a fundamental conundrum: you want pilots to be open and seek help in order to promote safety, but once they’re open they’re a clearly identified risk and get removed from the cockpit. So the consequences of being open discourage that openness. Or at least that’s the fear many pilots have, not trusting the commitments that are in place to help rather than punish.
OMG has Tim Dunn see this!!??? Has anyone checked on Tim?
8 hours from the last drink is an FAA minimum. Airlines can and usually do have a higher number, like 12 hours.
Also, the blood alcohol limit is much lower in other countries.
Pilots aren’t having a drink before flying (there could be a rare case of that though), they just didn’t give their body enough time to recover from the night before. Again, the limit is very strict over there.
I would have thought 0% … I can’t quite believe the FAA allows “buzzed” pilots to fly any size of aircraft.
“Permission to be buzzed past the tower?”
no.
“8 hours” is inviting pilots to drink and then “I’ll be fine!” as they take 400 lives in their hands.
I’m old enough to remember seeing a pilot or two at the airport bar before a flight having a cocktail or two. Yes it did happen right there out in the open back in the day.
I ‘m sure that it was “premium” alcohol that the Delta pilot was drinking.
I was on this flight. Calling my lawyer right now…
One way to identify an actual ‘free’ society is whether you can mock your own leaders (and live to tell the tale.) — I don’t dare leave the US, I actually question whether I’d be let back in. I comment on several news websites, trying to offer views contrary to the Texas State Government … and it’s national branch. They’re not rabid, just opinions and thoughts. Homeland Security is alleged to be grabbing innocents, ignoring their rights, hauling them to Lesotho/Swaziland in South Africa, dropping them off. The only word I recall in Zulu .. pelindaba, shut up, don’t talk anymore.
@Hall Decker — I know, though, I thought it was Sudan (which, these days, far worse than even Lesotho). Anyway, yes, we’re going through a ‘rough patch’ here (in the USA). The descent into some form of illiberal democracy (Orban’s Hungary, practically one-party rule, eventually Putin’s Russia, pre-determined elections just-for-show, or Xi’s CCP) is not good, at all, but, for us, this is all still reversible (for now). The decent folks still outnumber the vile; we just aren’t fighting back much, and far too much capitulation. When our oligarchs back these fascists, it usually goes poorly. Perhaps, the wealth-killing tariffs will lead to an economic downturn, then the fascists will eat themselves alive, or just simply consolidate more power. Clearly, I’m not in-favor of dictatorship, whether here or anywhere. I’m in favor of self-determination, stability, and rule of law, not techno-feudalism or old-school kings either. Good luck out there!
T ja,
yeah, I’m reading. this thread took a pretty predictable political turn which is hardly a solution to the problem.
Parker gets it. Addiction and in ability to control ones actions or behaviors is the problem and there are ways to get help. V
Pulling this stuff in another country gets very expensive and complicated for the pilot very fast.
let’s hope she gets the help she needs and it causes someone else to think before believing they won’t be caught.
Does Tim Dunn need to check in to rehab?
Confirmed: turns out this was a false positive test result and the pilot in question has been released and has returned home. Delta and the pilot will most likely sue the holy hell out of everyone involved in Sweden, as well as media outlets false reporting. Be careful what you report and don’t believe everything you read an see.
@John Lexamn — We saw. Gary just posted an update. If so, then Delta should sue, attempt to recover for their losses, and the passengers should still receive compensation under EU261; I get concerned that the consumers/passengers get screwed in these situations (no recourse). With such regulations, it’s easy to say after-the-fact, ‘oh, sorry, government, no compensation.’