Finnish airline pilot given prison sentence for being drunk in cockpit in UK

New British legislation gives police broader powers

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A court in Manchester handed down a six-month prison sentence on Thursday to a Finnish commercial airline pilot, who had admitted being drunk in the cockpit of the aircraft he was due to fly from Manchester to Dalaman in Turkey in August.
      The 51-year-old pilot was apprehended by airport officials and police while making pre-flight checks at the controls of a Boeing 757 chartered from Finnair by Air Scandic, shortly before he was scheduled to take the plane and 225 holidaymakers to the Turkish resort destination.
      He failed a police breath test, and a subsequent blood test showed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.49 ppm, which is rather more than twice the limit of 0.20 ppm laid down in British regulations for air traffic. The pilot admitted the offence at Trafford Magistrates' Court in late October, but the case was forwarded to the Crown Court for sentencing, as the lower court could only hand out fines.
      The pilot, who was employed by Finnair at the time of the incident, was suspended after his arrest and subsequently resigned on his own initiative.
     
The Finnish captain, who had had 25 years' flying experience with Finnair, was the first pilot to be sentenced under a new law introduced in Britain in March of this year.
      The legislation gives police the right to breathalyse pilots and members of the flight crew if airport authorities have reason to suspect they may have been drinking or may still be under the influence.
      In this instance a bus driver had alerted the authorities to the scent of alcohol when ferrying the crew to the terminal before the early morning take-off.
      The court heard that the pilot had drunk several glasses of wine on the previous afternoon. Technically speaking, he had not breached the airline's zero-tolerance rules about no alcohol for 12 hours prior to a flight, but the quantities consumed rendered him well over the prescribed limit the following morning.
     
The case is mercifully an uncommon one, but follows uncomfortably closely on the heels of an incident reported here in October, when two British Airways cabin attendants were removed from a flight from Helsinki to London Heathrow after suspicions were aroused that they had been drinking.
      In March 2003, the captain of a Lufthansa jet received a 60-day suspended sentence in Vantaa for a similar alcohol offence, committed just before Christmas in 2002. It has been noted that had the Finnair pilot committed his offence in Finland, he would have avoided prison; Finnish law currently draws the line for being drunk in air traffic (punishable with a custodial sentence) at 0.5 ppm of blood alcohol.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish pilot admits guilt on drunkenness charge (28.10.2004)
  Flight attendants suspected of intoxication - BA flight to London delayed (11.10.2004)
  Lufthansa pilot given suspended sentence for attempting to fly under the influence (1.4.2003)

Helsingin Sanomat