Sam’s Split-Second Decision

Sam was an on-call chief pilot for an international airline who received an early morning call from Peter, another pilot. Peter was scheduled to fly that morning, but he had been stopped by a security screener because he appeared to be impaired. Peter admitted that he had consumed alcohol the night before but stated that he was not impaired that morning. Peter had called the airline to report that he was sick and unable to fly, but he wanted Sam’s advice about what he should do next. If Sam advised Peter to submit to an alcohol test and he failed, Peter could lose his job. However, if he did not advise Peter to submit to the test and Peter was involved in an alcohol-related incident in the future, Sam could be blamed for covering up an offense.