CO-PilotDENVER – A Colorado pilot was fired after he says he accidentally ate a marijuana edible. After years of hard work, Nate Cupp finally achieved his dream of becoming a pilot. Then overnight, that dream was destroyed.
Cupp went to a casino with a friend the weekend before an upcoming drug test. While he was there, he ate a sugar-coated piece of candy that turned out to be an edible. He failed his drug test when he tested positive for THC.
Cupp says he couldn’t breathe when he was informed of the test results and he tried to explain to the person who contacted him that the results had to be wrong.
The airline that he was employed by terminated him and the F-A-A took away his pilot’s certification. He immediately began working with a physician who helped him regain his certification. Dr. Robert Sancetta worked with Cupp for months and he went to the F-A-A and explained that the exposure to the THC was incidental.
Regardless of the F-A-A’s decision to reinstate his certification, the airline he worked for has a policy preventing him from flying for them again. He’s currently working in sales and hasn’t decided what his next step in aviation should be.
He has to continue regular drug testing and monitoring for another year yet.
