Captain Alexander Cheplevsky of Aeroflot Flight 315 spoke to his passengers in a preflight welcome message. Cheplevsky did not sound intelligible and passengers suspected the Captain was drunk. There was a long stand off between the passengers, crew and Aeroflot officials at the airport on Dec 28.

Aeroflot crew and officials refused to back down and change the flight crew. When Captain Cheplevsky came out of the cockpit, he appeared unsteady on his feet, had bloodshot eyes and a red face.

Ksenia Sobchak, a reporter for the Moscow Times and reality TV show host, telephoned Aeroflot to complain. It was largely due to the influence of Sobchak that the flight crew was changed. Ksenia Sobchak saved Aeroflot Flight 315.

It took 3 hours of pleading with Aeroflot’s crew and officials before the airline agreed to replace the flight crew. Three weeks after this incident, Aeroflot said Captain Cheplevsky may have suffered a stroke before the flight and tests revealed no presence of intoxication.

In Sept 2008, a plane from Aeroflot-Nord crashed and killed all 88 on board. A crash report blamed pilot error. The pilot had alcohol in his blood.

Ksenia Sobchak saved Flight 315 – news link.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Gossip.