On a Monday in August, a plane full of passengers travelling from Johannesburg to London was delayed for 24 hours while British Airways sorted out a staffing emergency.
That emergency, it now turns out, involved a night of drugs, drinking, and marathon sex by one of the airline’s pilots.
On Wednesday, British tabloid The Sun reported on a pilot’s wild night out based on texts he sent to a stewardess friend, recounting his Joburg party.
At the bar he met a “young Spanish bird”. The married man said he snorted cocaine from the breasts of the woman.
What he described left little doubt that he would not be fit to act as first officer for a flight out the next day after he “couldn’t even lift my head” until 14:00 the next day.
His colleague alerted their bosses and the flight was cancelled. The pilot, was flown home the next day as a passenger, subjected to a drug test, and then fired.
After cancelling the flight at an estimated cost of £100,000, the pilot had to be flown home as a passenger the following day where he was required to complete a drug test. He tested positive, leading to his termination.
