Passengers Stop Drunk Russian Pilot Before Take-Off

Passengers aboard a flight from Moscow to New York December 28th staged a mini "rebellion" before take-off when they noticed that the pilot was inebriated. How did they come to this conclusion? Because it took him three tries to say the words "duration of flight." Also, as one of the passengers told the Moscow Times (which happened to have a reporter on board!): "I don't think there's anyone in Russia who doesn't know what a drunk person looks like."

The Times of London reports that when some passengers started complaining, flight attendants threatened to expel them from the Aeroflot Boeing 767 if they didn't stop "making trouble." Then, as the mutiny spread, airline reps came aboard to try to reassure the rabble-rousers, announcing that since the plane "practically flew itself," it was really "not such a big deal" if the pilot, Alexander Cheplevsky, was blotto.

A passenger elaborates: "At first, [the pilot] was looking at us like we were crazy. Then, when we wouldn't back down, he said 'I'll sit here quietly in a corner. We have three more pilots. I won't even touch the controls, I promise.'" Cheplevsky probably would have gotten his way, but socialite and television host Ksenia Sobchak happened to be on board and she made a big stink, demanding that all four pilots be replaced.

And so it was done. But an Aeroflot spokeswoman says tests revealed no trace of alcohol in the pilot's blood, and she blamed "mass psychosis" among passengers for incident. Oh, but then the company issued a statement saying that Mr Cheplevsky might have suffered a stroke just before the flight. He tells Komsomolskaya Pravda he had been celebrating his 54th birthday with friends the night before the flight, but maintains that he not been drinking.

It's been a rough week for Aeroflot; on Tuesday investigators revealed that the captain of an aircraft that crashed on a domestic flight in September, killing all 88 onboard, had alcohol in his system.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on February 4, 2009 6:55 PM

Comments [rss]

Brooklynbobby

You don't have to go to Russia to witness the drunkenness. Just go to any neighborhood in South Brooklyn and you'll see for yourself.

Not Your Sweetie

Why does this reminds me of the US politics? First with W and now...."I screwed up - I won't touch the controls anymore!"

NannyState

"Once I flew Sibir Airlines plane from Novokuznetsk to Almaty. Wee noteeced strange light from rear the plane. I looked and saw tail section steel on tarmac. Pilot gave free vodka after we collected our bags from grass een runway. Eet was not bad treep at all, quite frankly."

henricus

Mr. Mel, I had the same thing happen to me. I had to fly from Petersburg to Moscow. I was told to pay the extra money and fly to Helsinki first on Finnair.

It's sad actually. The Russian people are pretty darn smart as a whole...well read..and some of the most 'thinking' people I have ever met. Alcohol just destroys the country...

Reminds me of the Futurama with Irish super civilization that invents whiskey.

Mr Mel

She also told me that Aeroflot had numerous crashes and near misses, they were so routine that there was almost no press coverage.

longacre

The best part of this is the "socialite" who finally got them to switch pilots is often referred to as "Russia's Paris Hilton."

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/06/02/ksenia3606_narrowweb__300x503,0.jpg

The Edge

And she's much hotter than PH.

Clarice City

At least thier paris hilton does something. Ours would be asking where he gots the free drinks.

Clarice City

their

Mr Mel

I knew someone that worked for an American company in Russia. She had to do a lot of traveling within the country. She was instructed to never fly Aeroflot. If she had to fly from Moscow to an interior city, she had to fly Lufthansa to Hamburg and then on a non-Russian airline to the final destination.

Clarice City

I was dating a guy that rode that airline to Moscow and, whe I asked him how his flight was he said that as he was exiting the plane (yeah, outside...no gate)he noticed that tires on the landing gear were balding.

Rocknrope

Was he good in the cossack?

matty

i took aeroflot from paris to moscow. it was the scariest thing i have ever done in my life. Not cause of the flight, but because there was the wreckage of a bombed plane on the runway of schermanyavo airport that I later found out held a russian reporter who was a critic of putin who was in it!

Scary, scary, scary.

NannyState

"Sheremetnyevo ees very safe airport. You were een no danger at all seence you are not anti-Putin journaleest, Mattya."

breaknight

The Russian pilot is like the bizzaro Sully.

babyhitler

russia lost the cold war because they all got drunk. Russians will drink all the Irish under the table. You've never seen alchoholism until you've been to russia. Ever wonder how Vodka became a staple drink? that shit's 80 proof. people over here drink it mixed with shit but the russians drink it neat. CRAZY!!!!

NannyState

"Aeroflot ees not bad airline. Just because pilot ees horrible algogolic he steell arrive een Hudson Reever as on top of schedule."

cwbuecheler

Not to be pedantic, but this entire story is written as if there was proof of the pilot's inebriation up until the last two paragraphs. It really should say allegedly drunk, or similar. Just because a group of people think a guy is drunk, doesn't mean he actually is.