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ABX Senior Captain Who Questioned Alternate Airport Choice Loses JobAfter a disagreement about the alternate airport the company had planned for a revenue flight between Osaka Airport, Japan (RJOO) and Shanghai, China (ZSPD), a senior ABX Air captain no longer has his job. Teamsters Local 1224, representing ABX pilots, filed suit July 31 to contest the termination. The Boeing 767 captain, a 27-year ABX veteran with more than 25 years as a captain, noticed during his preflight planning that the alternate listed on the dispatch release did not match anything in the aircraft’s FMS database. Local 1224 president Dan Wells told AIN, “While ABX procedures allow for the manual entry of waypoints, that procedure applies only to flight in domestic airspace.” ABX Air allows the customer to choose the alternate it wants, which in this case was not in the FMS database, causing the captain some discomfort. After discussions with dispatch in the U.S., as well as the chief pilot, the 767 captain invoked captain’s authority [FAR 121.537] and insisted that an alternate that could be found in the database be used. The dispatcher and the chief pilot disagreed and chose an alternate that required offloading 14,000 to 16,000 pounds of the customer’s cargo. The 767-200 on the flight in question was capable of carrying a maximum of approximately 90,000 pounds of cargo.