While the irreparable damage that even one strike can do to a career makes such incidents exceedingly rare, news reports of pilots trying to get away with putting down a few shots do occasionally come up in the aviation world.
In March 2024, a Delta Air Lines (DAL) pilot just a few years away from retirement was sentenced to 10 months in jail over a June 2023 incident in which security agents noticed that his bag contained a bottle of German spirit Jägermeister that was both open and “just under half full.” A blood alcohol test showed that Lawrence B. Russell Jr. had been drinking heavily just hours before being scheduled to transport a plane full of people from Edinburgh to New York.
In April 2024, a Japan Airlines (JPNRF) flight scheduled to go from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled at the last minute after hotel workers tipped off both the airline and police about a pilot who was spotted drinking heavily on their premises.
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“Occurred while we were already under administrative guidance due to multiple safety incidents”
On August 28 of this year, another Japan Airlines pilot was relieved from duty after getting caught drinking alcohol shortly before he was supposed to fly a passenger jet from Honolulu to Chubu Centrair International Airport (NGO) in central Japan.
The last-minute cancelation caused delays of two other flights slated from depart from Tokoname City in what in one case caused passengers to be delayed by over 18 hours.
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Hit by a wave of bad PR, Japan Airlines issued a statement saying it “sincerely apologize[s] to our customers and all parties involved for the inconvenience and trouble caused.”
“We take this matter very seriously, especially considering that it occurred while we were already under administrative guidance due to multiple safety incidents, including alcohol-related cases, and were working to prevent recurrence,” the statement reads further.
How do airlines monitor pilots’ alcohol consumption? It depends
In this case, the pilot was not outwardly drunk but was identified as having consumed alcohol beyond the U.S. legal limit of 0.04% in a surprise audit prior to the flight. The airline had previously been tapped by Japan’s transport ministry to better monitor its pilots’ consumption of alcohol after several incidents of this kind occurred in 2024 and 2023.
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How alcohol is monitored differs according to the laws of the country from which the pilot is flying. While pilots are not breathalyzed before each flight they take in the U.S., they are subject to random tests at any time and checked if there is suspicion — airport workers in particular are trained to report any strange behavior they observe.
With some of the strictest airline alcohol consumption laws in the world, India has in the last year tried to add a Civil Aviation Requirements clause that would prevent pilots from using even products such as mouthwash, perfume or any other “substance […] which has alcoholic content” in the 24 hours before they are scheduled to fly to avoid even the possibility of confusion about whether one of its pilots had consumed alcohol.
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