[clayfoushee]

Most company rules are 12 hrs.....stricter than FARs, but in any event, with random alcohol tests, anything registering over .04 (that's the accuracy/sensitivity limit of the machine) will result in removal from duty, even if it's been more than 12 hrs.

Al, I used to work for Northwest. Yes, we had a celebrated incident, but so have America West, Virgin Atlantic (recently), and there have certainly been others at major airlines that the news media did not latch onto. It's a disease and in any population a rare percentage have the disease and can't control it. Fortunately, it's a relatively rare occurrence among airline pilots.

I agree that cars should be viewed almost the same as airplanes.