Pilots Police Themselves

One question the Carlos family is probably asking, how was Caldwell able to fly his plane without a pilot's license? News On 6 reporter Jennifer Loren talked to the folks at a small Tulsa airport.

Monday, December 18th 2006, 5:09 pm

By: News On 6

One question the Carlos family is probably asking, how was Caldwell able to fly his plane without a pilot's license? News On 6 reporter Jennifer Loren talked to the folks at a small Tulsa airport. They say smaller aviation is really a self-policing industry, in more ways than that one.

As O-H-P troopers began their investigation, they told The News on 6 the pilot, Brent Caldwell, had been drinking at the time of the crash. They also confirmed Caldwell did not have a pilots license when he chose to take those three passengers on board. But here at Christiansen Aviation they say 99.9 percent of the pilots they know take flying a lot more seriously.

Bill Christiansen, Christiansen Aviation: "Flying is a lot of fun. Its a very safe industry but you have to take it very seriously because its a serious business."

But how can you keep a pilot from flying after drinking? And how do you know if they have a pilots license? The News on 6 saw a lot of planes at the airport, but there is no way to know if a pilot has been drinking or has a license. Christiansen says smaller aviation pilots are pretty much on their own.

Bill Christiansen: "You know out here, in theory, if a guy had his own airplane he could get in the airplane and take off and never interact with anybody. You know, its just kind of self policing where he can just fly when he wants to fly."

Drinking and flying, of course is illegal. So is flying with out a pilots license. But the FAA is in charge of policing that. Local officers will do occaisional ramp checks, checking the plane's documents and the pilots'.

They're required to have three things to fly: A current medical document, a pilots license and a bi-annual review.

Bill Christiansen: "There are policing organizations. But they're spread very thin because normally as I say, the industry kind of polices itself."

There is an old rule called "Bottle to Throttle" that most pilots use as a guide when it comes to drinking and flying. That is, allow at least eight hours after you've been drinking to even think about flying a plane.