this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025

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135

Flight attendant was four times over alcohol limit, court told (www.bbc.com)

submitted 4 months ago by fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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[+] Cryan24@lemmy.world 44 points 4 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] Laser@feddit.org 48 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I know you jest, but the flight attendants' primary job isn't catering, but safety. Some passengers seem to forget that. Passengers are required to follow their orders, not the other way around; their hospitality doesn't mean they have to take one's bullshit.

So yeah I'd personally prefer if the people in charge of safety on a flight weren't intoxicated. Usually that's a pilot privilege

[–] CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

I'm not worried. I don't live my life around freak accidents. This really doesn't need to be national news ruining her life if there wasn't a crash before hand, that's the real issue.

Expecting a shit wage employee to act better than cops (let's set that bar real low) in a dangerous event is silly. That person isn't paid enough to give a fuck about any of those people. Those that do are going above and beyond.

[–] Laser@feddit.org 28 points 4 months ago

I’m not worried. I don’t live my life around freak accidents. This really doesn’t need to be national news ruining her life if there wasn’t a crash before hand, that’s the real issue.

I mean she literally crashed her car on the way to the flight she was finally removed from? I agree it's weird that this makes the news, but it's probably because the case is so odd…

Expecting a shit wage employee to act better than cops (let’s set that bar real low) in a dangerous event is silly.

It's shameful that Virgin pays so little. But then again it doesn't excuse going on the job drunk. Don't take the job, go on strike for better conditions, all fine by me. But don't show up drunk to your job where you operate safety equipment. Too much to ask? Also I do expect cops not to be drunk

[–] FishFace@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Cops behave fairly well in countries where they receive any training. Flight attendants do, too.

Some back of the envelope maths suggests that there's an approximately 10% chance of a given flight attendant being on a flight which is evacuated (based on US data, which is what I could find, where there are about 33 evacuations per year, 9.8 million scheduled passenger flights per year, and where flight attendants work about 64 flights a month (according to a random quora post claiming to be by a flight attendant) and an arbitrary figure of 40 years working.

You might not live your life around freak accidents, but people who design industry safety standards do, and do so for a reason: because when you work in it, the probability of it affecting you goes from "inconsequential" to "significant". If there's no rule against turning up drunk to a safety-critical role, or no punishment for breaking it, then eventually someone will die because the flight attendant on duty couldn't remember how to instruct people properly.

Air travel is safe because aviation has a safety culture, and it has that safety culture because danger in the air is inherently more dangerous than danger elsewhere. You can't just coast to a stop when there's a problem on an aeroplane.

[–] Laser@feddit.org 7 points 4 months ago

A lot of people have no idea about aviation safety, it shows in these kind of threads. I worked in aviation for about 5 years, so I at least have an idea, though I'm far from an expert (about a year as a technical officer in the German Air Force, more of a management role but you still get the basic safety courses like Maintenance Resource Management training, four years of procurement for a maintenance IT system), and how some people approach the subject stumps me. Flying isn't the safest mean of travel because of its nature, but rather because of rigid rules at every step of the process that are enforced by supervisors and inspectors.

Literally heard this phrase Sunday: Accidents don't happen – they're caused.

[+] LittleBorat3@lemmy.world -7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

When the plane crashes into the ocean, you are toast anyways

[–] Laser@feddit.org 7 points 4 months ago

Probably, but then again that's not the only possible accident; she was planned on an intercontinental flight that day, but it could just have been Rome or something; and even over the ocean, an aircraft has rafts, it might not save you in the very middle, but if you go down close to a coast, you want the crew to be able to handle emergency equipment and not be tipsy

[–] ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah so don't get on the planes that are going to crash. Obviously.

[–] Laser@feddit.org 2 points 4 months ago

Duh

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago

For planes with a stewardess, 90% of passengers survive a crash.

A plane plunging into the ocean is not the most common type of crash. That vast majority of flights are over land.

But also most crashes happen close to the airport because that whole taking off part is the riskiest, most fuel so most weight. Landing is the second most common but and leans towards pilot error.

So it's best for the entire flight crew to be sober for take off and landing.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 38 points 4 months ago (3 children)

For reference- she was at 0.091% BAC

England has a driving limit of 0.08%

[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 4 months ago (3 children)

For those confused: Americans use percentage for blood alcohol concentration.

That's 0.91‰ and 0.8‰ respectively.

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 4 months ago

% is percent, ‰ is per mille (thousand)

[–] marsza@lemmy.cafe 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

What do non-Americans use?

[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Like floquant said, many European countries use per mille (which is denoted by ‰). It's easy to convert those two but you first have to realize the need for conversion if you don't read carefully (since the symbols % and ‰ look similar at first glance).

[–] Acidbath@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

holy shit 0_o as an American, I have never seen this symbol in my life.

[–] marsza@lemmy.cafe -2 points 4 months ago (4 children)

But they still mean percent yeah?

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

No, per mille does not mean per cent. 1000 does not equal 100.

[–] marsza@lemmy.cafe -2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So they measure bac by the mile? This does not make sense.

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 4 months ago

mille, not mile. mille means thousand, so "per mille" means "per thousand", just as "per cent" means "per hundred". so 10‰ is 1%

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

They are similar in the same way as millimeters and centimeters, hectograms and kilograms, etc. One is 10 times smaller than the other, so they represent the same unit at different scales. The name "per cent(o)" means 1 in 100, while "per mille" means 1 in 1000

[–] marsza@lemmy.cafe -3 points 4 months ago

Blood alcohol level.

[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, it's the same unit just offset by a factor of ten:
% = 10 * ‰

[–] marsza@lemmy.cafe 3 points 4 months ago

Oh, I see. Yes this makes sense thank you

[–] SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org 3 points 4 months ago

Strictly speaking, they're not even units. Just shorthand for a factor.

[–] Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Per cent is per hundered (1/100). The sign is %.

Per mille is per thousand (1/1000). The sign is ‰.

It's basically used to say 0.1% as 1‰ without using decimals because fuck them.

On another note, the symbols used are ingenious. The diagonal line represents "1", and the number of o's is the same as in the number (two for hundered and three for thousand)

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

I read it as per mile first. I was soo confused. Lol

[–] couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Can attend the flight / can not attend the flight

[–] marsza@lemmy.cafe 1 points 4 months ago

Irrelevant

[–] andrewta@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Thank you

[–] obinice@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What's the limit at her company for her job, though? I'm assuming that's the limit we're discussing here, unless she was trying to drive the plane.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 14 points 4 months ago

0.02% according to the article.

[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Why is the driving limit 4 times higher than the limit for acting as a flight attendant?

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I really don't care about people not being sober as long as they can function correctly.

Everything else is just strong arming people into the awful state of being conscious in this horrible reality.

[–] Laser@feddit.org 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I really don’t care about people not being sober as long as they can function correctly.

Regardless of the rest you wrote that I disagree with, she crashed her car on the way to the flight that she was removed from, blaming the steering. Not sure how that would qualify as "function correctly"

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's true. I read over it.

But in general I think we should stop judging people. Except the ones that crash their car of course.

[–] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 months ago

It's fine until it isn't. It's not an acceptable risk to others health allow people to go around drinking and driving when they think it doesn't affect their judgement

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 5 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Liver can't break down alcohol? How do I get that

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

First you break the liver.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago

Alcoholism

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Well, you could try Disulfram but I’m not sure it’s the effect you’re looking for.

[–] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Starve a cold, drown a liver?

[–] ruuster13@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago

We've got a bit of an ~~alcohol~~ oligarchy problem in society.

[–] blicky_blank@lemmy.today 1 points 4 months ago

This is an excuse for a firing, nothing else