An Honest Admission – Standing up for Yourself

This is the fifth part by Lyle Prouse

At my sentencing, the judge offered to let all three of us remain free pending appeals, since this was the first time this law had ever been applied and there were many complex legal issues. The other two opted to remain free. I told the judge I had been convicted and it was time for me to go into prison…because I had learned how to “live life on life’s terms” as we said in treatment, and I refused to whistle in the dark.

I was terrified of walking in there but I recalled something I’d learned as a Marine, that “Courage is not the absence of fear; it’s the ability to continue in the face of it.” Continue reading

“Judge not, that ye be not judged (Matthew 7:1)”

This is the sixth part by Lyle Prouse

…I just came across yours (post) in which you say I “hung the other pilots out to dry,” and “was responsible for their welfare,” ad nauseum.

Arrogance and grandiosity often get in the way of fact checking before spouting off, and you provide a great example of that. Continue reading

Alcoholism, the Scourge; An alcoholic – Bearer of the Cross

This is the seventh and the final part by Lyle Prouse

I hope some may have gained a little understanding about a most difficult and complex disease – alcoholism. Sometimes called “the disease of a thousand faces.”

I considered a brief explanation of the disease itself, the three axes it affects (I think that’s the plural of axis, isn’t it?), and some of the science behind all this. The problem is that there isn’t any way to do it “briefly,” so I’ll leave it where it is.

The only one who really has to really understand it is me, since I’m an alcoholic and will either live WITH this disease…or die FROM it. Continue reading

Lyle Prouse – A Profile

This piece is based on a post by Brian Abraham

Few pilots are better qualified to discuss the dangers of alcohol than Lyle Prouse, the Northwest Airlines captain whose fall from grace made national headlines 11 years ago.

On March 8, 1990, Prouse and the other two members of his Boeing 727 flight crew were arrested after completing a trip from Fargo, N.D., to Minneapolis. Hours earlier they’d been drinking heavily at a bar and a witness had tipped the FAA. The three pilots were the first to be charged under a 1986 law that criminalized operating a “common carrier under the influence of drugs or alcohol”. The day after his arrest, Prouse entered a month-long alcohol abuse program. He has been sober ever since.

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Bashing the Drunk!

Drunken pilot reporting for duty (1) may have made headlines, in turn setting various fora abuzz with strong public opinion ranging from strong action against the pilot to the need for a sympathetic view. Indeed, if one looks at this incidence from the perspective of aviation safety, the pilot, if he had gone unnoticed, was jeopardizing safety of his passengers besides breaching the practices of good conduct and company policy, thus rendering himself liable for criminal actions. But seeing it from an individual point of view, what is it about ‘alcohol’ which has now brought his professional career to a grinding halt! Or stated another way, what is it that leads to such a dependence on alcohol for a professional pilot to jeopardize his career and the safety of those under his care?

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