Alcoholic pilot flies again

Pilot Joseph Balzer has been on a tumultuous journey for most of his 53 years, fighting his way back into the cockpits of airliners after losing his wings because of alcoholism.

Balzer’s own battle with the bottle exploded years later during what was supposed to be a routine flight from Fargo, N.D., to Minneapolis. But the 1990 trip aboard the Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 made aviation history–in the worst possible way without anybody getting killed.

Balzer, the flight engineer, was intoxicated on the flight carrying 91 passengers. The flight’s captain, whom Balzer described as a tyrant who drank more than a fifth of rum each day, and the first officer also were over the limit of a 0.04 blood alcohol content for pilots.

“You would think that sleeping in my clothes and throwing up the night before would have been a huge warning sign to me,” Balzer wrote in a tell-all book chronicling his battle for redemption, “Flying Drunk.”

The book, published by Savas Beatie LLC of New York City, was released last week during AirVenture, the annual air show and aviation convention in Oshkosh produced by the Experimental Aircraft Association.”It was just so sad that I was still losing my battle with alcohol, that it still had its self-destructive grip on me,” he said in the book, which he started working on three years ago in an effort to open a window to the mostly hidden problem of alcohol in the cockpit.

The Northwest jetliner landed safely in Minneapolis. But Federal Aviation Administration officials, who received a tip from a restaurant customer who observed Balzer and his crewmates drinking heavily in Fargo the night before, were waiting for them at the gate.

Balzer, still serving his probationary period as a first-year Northwest pilot, had pleaded with a FAA inspector in Fargo to test his blood alcohol level, but the inspector declined and allowed the flight to take place after he talked to the three pilots, according to court records.

However, the FAA decided to test the pilots for alcohol in Minneapolis, after the plane landed and some 14 hours after the drinking binge. All were still over the limit.

The trio were fired by Northwest in a highly publicized case, and all three pilots were charged with the federal crime of operating a commercial airliner while intoxicated.

It is not an uncommon scenario, because of a pervasive culture of pilots trying to help and cover up for colleagues suffering from alcoholism or substance abuse to save them from losing their livelihoods, said Balzer, a recovered alcoholic who went through 12-step programs and today helps others fighting the disease or the fallout from it.

In his case, Balzer lost everything, except his devoted wife, Deborah, who is a flight attendant. The FAA revoked all his pilot certifications, and Balzer spent the couple’s savings on attorneys.

He was convicted and sent to prison. He was supposed to serve his one-year term at the minimum-security prison at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. But when the warden found out Balzer was a pilot, he rejected him as an inmate out of concern the prisoner might steal a military jet and escape, Balzer said.

He eventually clawed his way back into aviation, re-qualifying for his pilot ratings and working for small-time air freight operations, among other jobs.

It was an uphill struggle that took nine years. In 1999, with 7,800 hours of flight time, eight years of sobriety and an inspirational story of recovery to tell, Balzer was hired by American Airlines, which is renowned for its employee assistance program.

He is an American first officer with more than 10 years of service at American.

Source: fredericksburg.com