British Airways Pilot Snorted Cocaine Off a Topless Woman’s Chest, Missed His Flight, Then Got His Medical Back and Returned to a Cargo Cockpit

Mike Beaton was a married British Airways first officer with a London-bound long-haul to fly out of Johannesburg. The night before, he snorted cocaine off a topless woman’s chest, kept going into the morning, and did not make the report time. BA cancelled the service. He was fired. The Civil Aviation Authority pulled his medical. The pictures did the rest.

A night of excess

Beaton, a married father of one from Devon, took a night off in Johannesburg prior to his planned co-piloting shift. In texts to a friend who works as a flight attendant, he boasted, «I’ve been a very naughty boy,» according to The Sun.

He started at a bar, then moved through a «standard Joburg setup» in Melrose Arch: the Grillhouse steakhouse and Tiger’s Milk. He claimed he met two local men, a young Spanish woman, and a Welsh woman on vacation. The group ended up at one of the local men’s apartments after hours of drinking. Cocaine came out on a plate. Beaton wrote that the group launched into «a debate about whose chest is the best to do a bump off.» He also wrote, «I’ve lost my shirt somewhere.»

BA cancelled the London flight

The flight attendant he texted alerted the airline. British Airways blocked him from boarding and cancelled the 12-hour Johannesburg-to-Heathrow service, a delay later costed at about £93,000 to £100,000. A BA spokesperson said there was no risk to passengers because Beaton never sat in the seat. He was suspended, flown home as a passenger, and fired after failing a drug test at the airport. Alcohol was already gone from his system. A Class A drug was not.

An anonymous BA captain told MailOnline that pilot colleagues felt «hugely let down,» describing intoxication in the cockpit as «beyond rare» and «unthinkable.» The Civil Aviation Authority withdrew his medical certificate, the credential a UK pilot must hold to fly. The CAA said any UK pilot found to have abused drugs or alcohol would have a medical immediately suspended, and that restoration happens only after a rehabilitation program and only when the regulator is «completely satisfied.»

Back in a cargo cockpit, then the airline collapsed

That would have been the end of the story in a harsher industry. It was not. Around a year and a half later, British outlets reported that Beaton had regained his CAA medical and gone back into a cockpit for European Cargo, a Bournemouth-based freight operator flying converted A340s. LBC reported in March 2025 that he had already completed multiple cargo flights. The CAA declined to discuss his individual case. European Cargo said it did not comment on personnel but that all of its pilots met CAA standards. An aviation source told The Sun it was «disgusting» he was allowed to fly again.

An ATP certificate is a license. Restoration is a regulator’s judgment, not a moral reset. Cargo customers do not vote on who sits in the left seat. Passengers on that Johannesburg flight were delayed because a crew member chose a private room over a legal rest period.

European Cargo did not last. On June 3, 2026, the Bournemouth freight airline entered administration. Administrators at Teneo said the company had ceased trading under fuel-cost and working-capital pressure. One hundred seventy-eight jobs went with it. All six A340 freighters had already been parked. The last revenue flight was May 19, 2026. Beaton’s second act as a cargo first officer ended when the airline did.

Related from The AEGIS Alliance: the salon controversy, plus Odd News for more files on people who treated a job as a costume. The full medical-restoration framework is on the UK Civil Aviation Authority site.