Japan Airlines Co said Thursday one of its pilots was arrested by British police for exceeding the alcohol limit before a flight from London to Tokyo, leaving the airline to operate the flight with two pilots rather than the normal three. JAL said an alcohol level more than 10 times…
Japan Airlines Co said Thursday one of its pilots was arrested by British police for exceeding the alcohol limit before a flight from London to Tokyo, leaving the airline to operate the flight with two pilots rather than the normal three.
JAL said an alcohol level more than 10 times the legal limit set under British aviation law was detected in the 42-year-old co-pilot’s system, after he drank two bottles of wine and five cans of beer over six hours from 6 p.m. the night before the flight.
JAL Flight 44’s departure for Haneda airport scheduled for 7 p.m. last Sunday was delayed by 1 hour and 9 minutes.
The driver of a Heathrow Airport crew bus noticed the smell of alcohol on the co-pilot’s breath and reported it to police, according to JAL. Tests found the first officer had 189 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood in his system, almost 10 times the 20 milligrams limit for a pilot. The limit for drivers in Britain is 80 milligrams.
London police said Katsutoshi Jitsukawa appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in west London on Thursday and admitted exceeding the alcohol limit.
