Expat pilot who missed runway last yr caught drunk

Mumbai: A Jetlite pilot failed a pre-flight breathalyser test done at Chennai airport to detect alcohol traces in blood last Thursday. Only a couple of days later, on Saturday, another pilot—an expat flying a SpiceJet flight—tested positive for alcohol minutes before he was to take off from Delhi.
As airlines conduct these checks only at random, aviation officials say one can surmise that such cases—of pilots taking off after drinking—must be happening much more often all over the country.
The Jetlite pilot was promptly grounded but it was not known whether SpiceJet initiated any action against its pilot. The same SpiceJet pilot had landed on a wrong runway at Delhi airport on June 9 last year; the flight was cleared to land on the secondary runway but landed on the main runway which was under maintenance at the time. The pilot was removed from the airline following the incident, only to be brought back later.
Saturday’s incident came to light when the expatriate Spice Jet pilot reached Delhi airport to operate the Delhi-Guwahati-Bagdogra-Delhi flight SG 881. It was not known whether his blood sample was collected. SpiceJet did not respond despite repeated attempts.
Last week’s first such case occurred on Thursday when Jetlite grounded its pilot after he failed the breathalyser test before a Chennai-Delhi flight.
31/07/09 Manju/Times of India

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Categories: Safety Jul 2009