Officials at Alaska believed that the pair may have violated the airline’s ten-hour alcohol rule during layover, which prohibits pilots from consuming alcohol within ten hours of duty.
“Pina’s false claims defamed Engelien, invaded his privacy, decimated his life and career, and caused him severe distress,” Engelien’s lawsuit states, arguing that Alaska’s human resources advisor lead a “negligent, flawed and pretextual [internal] investigation” regarding the claims.
The lawsuit also states that Pina was previously involved in a similar incident during her time working for Alaska in May 2017, during which she reportedly “drank too much, blacked out, then later blamed others,” the Times reports.
According to Pina’s LinkedIn profile, she now flies for a Hawaii-based carrier.
A small twist on the Fox headline is that Copilot Pina was trying to get out of her own failed alcohol test and blamed it on the senior pilot.
I think that he may have the basis for a lawsuit.
Notice how the pilots union has remained very silent on this case.
Female airline pilots are notorious drinkers. Many women pilots celebrate being accepted by pouring lots of shots until falling down drunk.