Drunk Pilot On Moscow-NYC Flight Relinquishes Control After Passengers Protest; 'It's Not Such a Big Deal,' Says Airline Rep

It took a Moscow socialite and television host and a statement signed by 100 passengers to get an apparently drunk pilot thrown off an Aeroflot Boeing 767 flight set to fly from Moscow to New York City on Dec. 28th, according to the Moscow Times.

The bizarre incident began when the pilot, switching clumsily between Russian and English, attempted to deliver pre-flight announcements on the plane's public address system.  His slurred words and apparent inability to speak clearly in either language alarmed passengers who demanded to see the pilot.  Flight attendants tried to hush passengers by threatening to throw them off the plane. Not until television host Ksenia Sobchak started working her cell phone did the crew begin to relent.

A co-pilot came out and assured passengers that all was well and that he, in fact, would be flying the plane. Passengers were still not satisfied, and after a half hour of protests, the pilot in question made a personal appearance.  He was reportedly struggling to stand erect and promised he'd "sit quietly in the corner" and let his three colleagues pilot the aircraft. About 100 passengers signed a statement on the spot asserting the captain was incapacitated.

Finally, the entire crew was hustled off the plane and a new crew took over.  Aeroflot, in stereotypical Russian fashion, belittled the passengers as suffering from "mass psychosis" and threatened to sue the television host for delaying the flight; apparently her high profile caused the airline to eventually replace the flight crew.  An airline representative floated the theory that the captain might have been suffering a stroke.  (In fact, he's reportedly being treated for an unspecified medical condition, and it's not certain whether he'll return to work or not.)

My favorite line came from an Aeroflot employee who reportedly said, "It's not such a big deal if the pilot is drunk . . . really all he has to do is press a button and the plane flies itself.  The worst that could happen is that he trips over something in the cockpit." 

Hey--tell that to the passengers on the US Airways flight captained by Sully!