United Airlines has suspended a pilot who was arrested in London on suspicion that he was about to fly a Boeing 767 with 124 passengers while drunk, the airline said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred on Monday before flight UA949, which was bound for Chicago and would have carried 124 passengers and 11 crew. The passengers were accommodated on other flights.
The 51-year-old pilot, whose name was not released, was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport and freed on bail pending the results of alcohol tests, London Metropolitan Police spokesman Simon Fisher said.
Fisher declined to give further information.
United said the pilot has been suspended.
“Safety is our highest priority and the pilot has been removed from service while we are cooperating with authorities and conducting a full investigation,” UAL spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said.
“United’s alcohol policy is among the strictest in the industry, and we have no tolerance for violation of this well-established policy,” she said.
In another incident involving airline safety recently, the pilots of a Northwest Airlines jet became distracted and overshot Minneapolis-St. Airport by 150 miles (240 km) last month.
(Reuters)
By: Arabella-Cox - 21st February 2010 at 17:43
Indeed.
By: steve rowell - 21st February 2010 at 01:38
He got a rap over the knuckles with a wet lettuce leaf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8523452.stm
By: Arabella-Cox - 5th January 2010 at 21:29
Somewhere else on the same website it said up to 2 years in the slammer. But maybe he plea bargained?
By: Whiskey Delta - 5th January 2010 at 21:27
I guess they can drop the “allegedly” now that he pleads guilty.
What kind of punishment can he expect in the UK for this?
By: Arabella-Cox - 5th January 2010 at 21:17
By: Arabella-Cox - 24th November 2009 at 06:04
Does it really matter that he was drunk? According to Aeroflot, it doesn’t. Wasn’t it one of their executives who famously said that aircraft fly themselves these days, anyway?
By: steve rowell - 24th November 2009 at 05:06
A United Airlines pilot from Colorado accused of being drunk in the cockpit before a flight was to take off from London didn’t attend a court his court hearing in England on Friday.
Erwin Washington, 51, was about to take off from London to Chicago on a Boeing 767 on Nov. 9 when he was arrested.
His first appearance hearing took place in London and he now faces a charge of “being aviation staff, performing an aviation function whilst exceeding the proscribed alcohol limit.”
“He’ll be back in January,” his attorney Chris Humphreys said on Friday. “He’s receiving medical treatment and will be back in this court in January and then they’ll deal with him then.”
Source: CBS 13
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November 11, 2009 at 6:22 am