That is the most assinine statement I've ever read on this board. I suggest you supply us with proof of this amazing revelation? Oh and before you suggest I post proof, read Tennessee Bob's post in #15. He beat me to the punch. In my ten years of flying I have had nothing but responsible professionals next to me, to the last man. They all are professionals and conduct themselves as such pre, during and post duty times. And I know of very few who drink. These two were an exception, not the rule. The aviation industry gets enough speculative garbage from the media. I suggest you get a clue before you go generalizing on an industry you obviously know nothing about.
If the incidence of alcoholism in the public is 5% to 10% (some think it's 15% to 20%) please explain why airline pilots would have a lower percentage.
Do you think the annual phsyical exam is going to uncover the problem and weed them out? Go to a few AA meetings and ask the recovered alcoholics at the meeting about their experiences with doctors. Be prepared to hear lots of scornful laughter.
Perhaps you think active alcoholics are physically incapable of performing the job. How about baseball stars? (Mantle, Cobb, others). NBA basketball stars? (Pete Maravich, others). What about a world-class PBA golfer? (John Daly). All these people were active alcoholics at the peak of their careers. Daly, who's been in and out of rehab, may still be drinking.
Think the job is too intellectually demanding for an active alcoholic? The first three members of AA were an investment banker, a surgeon and a lawyer. Five American writers who won the Nobel were active alcoholics when they were honored.
I could go on and on mentioning CEO's, senior government officials (Ike's Secretary of Treasury, for example) but I'll close with a pilot who became an astronaut. Buzz Aldrin has revealed that he was an active alcoholic when he went to the moon with Armstrong and that he drank throughout his training. Those first astronauts were the most thoroughly examined (medically and psychologically) people in human history ... but the docs and psychologists couldn't diagnose one alcoholic in a three-man crew.
Sorry, but any society that has put an alcoholic on the moon (Aldrin took a small quantity of wine with him for a "sacramental" drink on the lunar surface) is utterly incapable of keeping them out of our airline cockpits.
The alcoholism doesn't disappear when the blood alcohol level goes to zero so statistics based on post-acccident examinations are irrelevant.
Active alcoholics tend to be over-achievers for many, many years. They also are very good at hiding their drinking. In short, you have probably shared the cockpit with more than one "invisible" alcoholic, but they're usually good at their chosen profession and most of them have little problem obeying the airlines' rules about drinking most of the time so you shouldn't worry ... too much.