A female Qantas pilot is under airline investigation after she was suspected of consuming alcohol prior to flying a passenger jet to Brisbane last week.

The captain was removed from the Boeing 767-300 aircraft after flight attendants informed the operations manager they suspected the pilot had been drinking, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Qantas management forced the aircraft to return to the domestic terminal at Sydney Airport and relieved the captain of her post.

The official investigation was launched after the Qantas pilot recorded a positive reading for alcohol in her system.

A replacement pilot was found to fly the 254-capacity aircraft to Brisbane.

The captain had been “withheld from service for administrative reasons,” according to a Qantas spokesperson.

“Anyone found to be affected by alcohol or drugs while performing, or when they are available to perform, safety-sensitive aviation activities will automatically be suspended from duties,” a CASA spokesperson said.

“They are not able to return to duty until they have been … given a medical clearance.”

Qantas has reported the incident to the Civil Aviation Authority and the investigation is expected to take at least a month.

In other Qantas news, a US visitor to Australia, Andrew Kahn was reportedly on hold with the airline for over 15 hours awaiting a flight confirmation.

“I think the wait time was simply my determination to see what exactly they meant by a representative coming on the line as soon as possible,” Mr Kahn said.

“When it got to over two or three hours that was the point where it was like: OK let's ride this out.”

Qantas confirmed it was investigating the matter but had not found any such call record.

“In fact, our average contact centre wait time during that period was under a minute and the longest wait time was 17 minutes,” a Qantas spokesperson said.

During a visit to Melbourne last week, Mr Kahn complained about McDonald's staff failing to act when a drug user overdosed at an outlet in Elizabeth St.