Alcohol threat

An enquiry report has found that the pilot commandeering the flight of a private airline which crash-landed at the Lahore airport earlier this month was intoxicated and fatigued at the time of landing. The ill-fated flight had departed from Karachi at around 7:30am. If we give two hours for driving from home, briefing and cockpit preparations, the pilot must have left his home at 5:30am. So assume that he was up at 5:00am, if at all he went to bed in the first place. How can a sensible person, who has to be up at five in the morning for even normal office duty – forget about flying a plane with 150 people on board – opt to go party the night before?
We have to admit that alcoholism is widespread in our society, with people driving under the influence of alcohol and flying planes while drunk. This has been conveniently ignored thus far. Given the low frequency of flights in Pakistan, it is not difficult to institute 100 percent breath tests for crews before reporting for duty.
Muddassir Hashmi
Dubai
UAE