Cockpit cock-up lands co-pilot in custody
A co-pilot for Japan Airlines is in custody in London after a breath test taken just before he entered the cockpit showed he was 10 times over the legal alcohol limit.
Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, 42, admitted in Uxbridge Magistrates Court that his blood-alcohol content was excessive, minutes before he was to board a passenger airline flying to Tokyo.
Mr Jitsukawa, who is awaiting sentencing, confessed he had consumed two bottles of wine and a jug of beer the night before his shift, according to a report on Japan’s NHK public TV channel.
Amazingly, he had passed an initial breath test and it was only when the driver of the crew bus caught a whiff of alcohol emanating from Mr Jitsukawa that the authorities were alerted and a second test conducted.
The second test revealed the first officer had 189mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system, almost 10 times the 20mg limit for cockpit crew.
After an hour’s delay, the JAL flight took off under the control of the remaining two pilots.
JAL issued an apology. It was delivered just a day after another Japanese carrier, All Nippon Airways, apologised for delays to domestic flights after a pilot who had also been heavily drinking on the evening before his shift became unwell.
Are these incidents likely to put you off flying with a Japanese carrier?
I don't know why but so many pilots are heavy drinkers --- I remember decades ago we knew quite a few Pilots, they were in the same water skiing area that we were in and they were always 'getting over a very heavy boozy ' few days, nice enough blokes but it always concerned me when they had such a responsible job