Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
He was probably a captain. The captain can basically tell the co-pilot to do everything, and the co-pilot will do it. So he was probably banking on just sitting there and hoping no one would notice.
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Either that, or he didn't want to get in #### with the airline for missing the flight. Captain or not, he may have figured he could just get on the plane, claimed he wasn't feeling well, and have the other pilot do all the work for him.
Regardless, while it is possible for one pilot to fly the plane by himself in an emergency, it's basically a two-person job.
One pilot flies the plane (and this isn't necessarily the Captain...in many cases, the Captain lets the F/O get more time as the 'pilot in command'), and the other handles the radios, and reads out the checklists.
So buddy gets on the plane, claims he's sleepy or has the flu, and then as they're going through their preflight checks, he passes out in his seat. At that point, the other pilot (whether Captain or F/O) realizes what's going on and calls it in.
So even if he was a senior Captain, he can't just tell the F/O to do all the work and take a nap. Like Ryan Coke said, the F/O has an equal responsibility to ensure the safety of the aircraft.
Bottom line...as I said, this guy's flying days (at least in any western nation) are over. He's going to lose his wings, perhaps go to jail, and after all that, he'll be kicked out of the country.
EDIT: Acey beat me to it. I forgot about the point that Acey made...this flight was going Calgary --> Regina --> Winnipeg --> Cancun. The F/O would not have flown the plane on every leg, all the way down to Mexico.
I don't know what this guy's plan was, maybe he wanted to have the other pilot fly the first leg to Regina, and then claim he was feeling sick, and get off the plane there. But that would have gotten him in more trouble compared to just calling in sick, or missing the flight from Calgary, because they would have sent him to a hospital to get checked out, and realized he was drunk.
I get the feeling that he didn't have a "plan" per se...he just knew he had to go to work, and in his drunk state, didn't realize that he was unfit to fly.