Pilot DUI
In a story that is light on details, a professional pilot was arrested after “behaving oddly before he became unconscious in the cockpit.” The full story is here.
Captain Miroslav Gronych was arrested after he was found unconscious in the cockpit of the passenger plane with 99 passengers and 6 crew on board.
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“Initial tests conducted by police indicate the pilot was severely impaired by alcohol,” police said in a statement.
The only test that could confirm this would be a blood alcohol test. Diabetic symptoms can closely mimic intoxication by alcohol. A person in a diabetic episode is often mistaken as intoxicated, when in fact, they had nothing to drink.
Most police in the US are dependent on the “Standardized Field Sobriety Tests” to determine intoxication. But these tests would be useless in a diabetic episode, making a blood alcohol test the only way to determine whether or not Captain Gronych was in fact under the influence.
Pilots that are charged with DUI are faced with special sanctions and time deadlines for notices that must be strictly met in order to preserve their license. These cases are fraught with pitfalls and having and experienced DUI Lawyer is a must.
Thankfully, another pilot was called to take over and the passenger plane made it safely to its destination. But I wonder how the police were able to determine that Captain Gronych was intoxicated; did they make an assumption based on his physical condition or were they more thorough and perform a blood alcohol test on a properly calibrated Gas Chromatograph?
