Drunk pilot arrested in London, 10 times over limit

[Admin]

 

A Japan Airlines co-pilot who was due to fly a passenger plane from London to Tokyo has been charged for being almost 10 times over the legal alcohol limit shortly before take-off.

 

Katsutoshi Jitsukawa will be sentenced later this month after pleading guilty at Uxbridge Magistrates Court in west London on Thursday to exceeding the alcohol limit.

 

The airline said the co-pilot was arrested on Sunday at Heathrow Airport for failing a breath test, causing a flight delay of one hour and 9 minutes.

 

Mr Jitsukawa cleared an earlier breath test, according to Japan Airlines.

 

The driver of a crew bus that was transporting him to the plane from Heathrow airport alerted police after smelling alcohol on him, Japan’s NHK public television said.

 

Tests found the 42-year-old first officer had 189 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood in his system, almost 10 times the 20mg limit for a pilot.

 

The limit for drivers in Britain is 80mg.

 

The airlines’ head of communications told reporters that it was “certain” the first breath test was not conducted properly.

 

Mr Jitsukawa acknowledged he had drunk about two bottles of wine and a pitcher of beer the previous night, NHK said.

 

He has been detained until his hearing on November 29.

 

Japan Airlines said the flight had to be operated by the remaining two pilots.

 

“The company sincerely apologises to the passengers and to all affected by the employee’s actions,” an airline representative told reporters.

 

The apology came a day after another major Japanese airline, All Nippon Airways, apologised for causing delays to five domestic flights after a pilot became unwell due to heavy drinking the night before.

 

The last-minute sickie affected 619 passengers travelling from Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture to smaller regional islands.

 

-with AAP

 

 

[old man emu]

For his sake, he's done his career.

 

 

[Birdseye]

If he was smelling of alcohol, then he had drunk some much more recently than the night before.

 

 

[danny_galaga]

If he was smelling of alcohol, then he had drunk some much more recently than the night before.

You can smell the alcohol of a drunk person way after they stopped drinking since it is coming out of their lungs. It’s how a breath test works after all

 

 

[Birdseye]

An incorrect assumption. The breath test measures the alcohol level in expelled air from the interaction with the blood and the lungs, not from vapours introduced by drinking. Somebody that smells of the alcoholic drink (after all alcohol itself is virtually free of any smell) will have consumed it relatively recently (or have spilled it down their jacket perhaps).

 

 

[old man emu]

Actually, what we smell and call "alcohol on the breath" are the chemicals produced as a result of the action of stomach acids on the other constituents of a beverage containing alcohol. The more correct terms would be "beer breath", "whisky breath", or "wine breath"

 

 

[danny_galaga]

Old man is right, we are both wrong! But my

 

Point was you can smell a drunk, and it’s not the same smell as simply smelling spilt whiskey. It’s the smell of a drunk. I don’t drink much myself, so perhaps it’s easier for me to spot?

 

 

[Birdseye]

Old man is right, we are both wrong! But myPoint was you can smell a drunk, and it’s not the same smell as simply smelling spilt whiskey. It’s the smell of a drunk. I don’t drink much myself, so perhaps it’s easier for me to spot?

Bloody cheek, I was not wrong. What I posted was absolutely correct, alcohol exuded into the breath from the blood is used in BAC tests and is not discernible to the nose. Beer breath etc. as mentioned correctly by OME exists for a period after consumption and until digestion has occurred.

 

I have known some real alcoholics, the sort that consume half a bottle of Scotch before I'd have my morning coffee, and I couldn't have picked them from appearance or smell at any normal distance.

 

 

[danny_galaga]

Well I can and I would say the guy who reported the pilot can too ;-)

 

 

[facthunter]

It's not very scientific. Pure ethanol isn't particularly strong smelling. Some of the characteristic odours/perfumes are from extra ingredients in wine and spirits. IF you have recently consumed you will give a false higher reading on a breath test, also. That's why the nice unformed Lady asks you how long since you imbibed. The reliable confirmation is by a blood test. Nev