Airline Background Checks

DJPilot

DJPilot

New Member
I have a few minor convictions in my criminal background from my college days. I have never been arrested; however, in October of 2007, I had a charge waived for public consumption of alcohol. In April of 2008, I paid a fine and was found guilty of public urination. In June of 2009, I was charged again with public consumption of alcohol, but the charge was dismissed. I understand all of these will come up on a background check for airlines, but do I still have a shot to fly? Keep in mind I have never been arrested and have a clean traffic record, but I have had a lot of difficulty landing a job lately considering the most recent public consumption charge was pending until about 2 months ago. I would like to end up flying for major airlines one day (i.e. Delta, American, USAir). Thanks for your help.
 
How old are you now and how old were you when this happened?

It doesn't matter if you weren't arrested if you were, in the end, convicted.

As I understand things, and this is my understanding, and it could be wrong, but it's better to be arrested and then not convicted of whatever you were charged with when it comes to getting a job.
 
My question: are the background checks different for pilots than for other airline jobs, or does each airline do the same thing for all employees?

I know tons of people on the ramp at several airlines who got hired with all sorts of charges a few years back ranging from shoplifting to a person forgetting they had a gun in their belt when they went thru airport security. If the background checks are the same for everyone, you should be ok.

Also, where are you in your flying? Are you about ready to get to an airline or just starting out? If you're just starting, its going to be a few years anyway, so I would think you'd be ok by then, if you were only charged with one of the 3 "crimes" then it would be easy to say "I was in college, made a stupid mistake, didn't do it again". At least thats what I think.
 
the checks and the federal minimums to get badged are the same, however airlines tend to be a bit choosier with hiring pilots than rampers.
 
DJPilot said:
I have a few minor convictions in my criminal background from my college days. I have never been arrested; however, in October of 2007, I had a charge waived for public consumption of alcohol. In April of 2008, I paid a fine and was found guilty of public urination. In June of 2009, I was charged again with public consumption of alcohol, but the charge was dismissed. I understand all of these will come up on a background check for airlines, but do I still have a shot to fly? Keep in mind I have never been arrested and have a clean traffic record, but I have had a lot of difficulty landing a job lately considering the most recent public consumption charge was pending until about 2 months ago. I would like to end up flying for major airlines one day (i.e. Delta, American, USAir). Thanks for your help.
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In light of recent events with crews and overnight partying, you might find more scrutiny with that kind of record. Drinking and misbehaving is a hot topic right now. You have a shot, but if I had 10,000 resumes and 100 spots to fill, I'll be honest...I'm betting there's enough in that stack who don't have that on their record. Best thing you can do for yourself is get some really good letters of recommendation and keep trying. While your at it, establish a clean record and have references who can confirm that you have left that past behind you. Also, it helps tremendously to be able to demonstrate in an interview that you are trustworthy, should you be given the opportunity to meet face to face.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. I'm 24 now, and these convictions are in the past three years. I am just starting flying, and I hope to have a job at a regional airline at some point around 28-30. These charges will be about 5-7 years behind me then. Whenever I fill an application, I put the words "minor charge in college" in the criminal background portion. I assume I can make it to an interview and explain that these are part of my past. Any additional help and advice is appreciated.
 
Hopefully you'll get some more people to chime in with their experiences before you spend a bunch of money.

But I'll tell you this...3 alcohol related run-ins with the law in 3 years is bad. You can't change the past, but I would strongly encourage you to make sure you don't repeat those mistakes for a 4th time. Also, wouldn't there be complications with qualifying for a medical (at least resulting in a deferral)?
 
I would also be VERY careful about taking out large loans to finance your flight training until you have some more concrete answers about this stuff.
 
Clocks said:
Hopefully you'll get some more people to chime in with their experiences before you spend a bunch of money.

But I'll tell you this...3 alcohol related run-ins with the law in 3 years is bad. You can't change the past, but I would strongly encourage you to make sure you don't repeat those mistakes for a 4th time. Also, wouldn't there be complications with qualifying for a medical (at least resulting in a deferral)?
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Only moving violations involving alcohol are reported on an FAA Medical, but of course the wonderful FAA medical examiner I had managed to defer my medical over about a 5 month process because of blood pressure medication. Thanks for the help.
 
You're 24 and on blood pressure medication?

You may have some other things to get in order before you pursue flying for a living.
 
Doug Taylor said:
Might be congenital.
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No doubt, but I'd very much argue that a pilots lifestyle (and that's any working pilot, not just the airlines) isn't very conducive to keeping your blood pressure low, your cholesterol low, and your weight down.

Of course who am I to talk, I put on 30 pounds in the last 6 months.
 
It wasn't...until about 6 months ago.

It probably hit me before that, but as soon as I moved back from Utah and starting sitting around all the time the pounds started stacking on. I'm now going to the gym 6 days a week to try to lose it all and get myself back in shape.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and say it won't matter. When the regionals get desperate, they tend to hire anyone with a pulse and at the "majors" it seems to be all about "who you know" with a few exceptions. By the time you're applying to a "major" these things will be close to 10 years in the past. I would be more concerned about the medical problems; make sure you can get a class 1 medical if you haven't already.

I "know" people that work at 121 US airlines and had DUI's within 4 years of getting hired. If you really want to fly I wouldn't let this hold you back, just stay out of trouble in the future. I won't lecture you because I know how it goes and I hate it when people do that.

Personally I have a few auto accidents "on my record", but never any citations associated with them. Yeah, sure, that hurts me, you just have to be careful out there when you're in a profession like this.
 
Thanks for all the good help guys. The high blood pressure was inherited from my father, but I'm in good shape so it shouldn't be a problem. The whole reason the original medical was deferred was because I had taken a medical back when I was 15 and did not report usage of any medication. The reason the medical took so long to be issued is a whole other story that has nothing to do with my hypertension, but with the doctor's office.
 
Not sure when you took your medical but under the new medical formatt I'm pretty sure you would have to report that even though you weren't convicted. Mine got deferred for one underage possesion of beer that was 4 years old. Got my medical in 3 weeks but still it got deferred. Plus any offenses has to be reported that you were convicted of under the non traffic violations.
 
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