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AN AER ARANN flight was delayed for several hours on Thursday after the pilot failed a breath test for alcohol at Bristol Airport.
The pilot was prevented from boarding the scheduled 17.10 flight from Bristol to Cork after he was breathalysed by airport police.
He was arrested and taken to a police station, where he passed a second breath test. The pilot was then released without charge. However, a replacement pilot had to be found, causing the flight to be severely delayed.
It’s understood that the incident took place after a long layover during which the pilot had elected to visit Bristol city. Aer Arann do not normally operate long stopovers at Bristol airport, so the pilot did not have a crew pass.
He was passing through passenger security in civilian clothes when he was stopped. Under UK law, airline pilots have a much lower alcohol limit than drivers.
The incident is now under investigation by Aer Arann. In a statement, the airline said:
Safety is and always will be our utmost priority. We are taking this matter extremely seriously and a thorough investigation has already started. There are checks and systems in place and this particular pilot did not board or fly the aircraft.
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Again he got to the police station, the alcohol had probably left his system! I think every professional driver/pilot should undergo more regular breathalyser tests!
I was on the bristol to Dublin flight on Thursday and the Dublin flight was delayed for 30mins because they needed to switch aircraft. I seen the other aircraft was parked away from the terminal, I guess u never know
Go on Paul!
Go on linda
I have heard quite a few stories from a very good source, (a long long time ago in a country far far away) of pilots and crew drinking till well sauced at 3 or 4 in the the morning and flying jet airplanes with 150-200 people on board at 9.00am. I’m sure it never happens anymore though. How many pilots get bagged in fairness?
At least one!
A couple of years ago at “the picnic” I was partying hard for 24 hours solid with two random blokes. At about 3 am on the Monday morning one of them just announced he had to go as he had a flight to get for work. I asked him what he did for a living, his response, pilot with a major airline. My jaw nearly hit the floor (although at that stage I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t have much control over my jaw)
Brian, HA!
The only hard bit is keeping the aircraft straight on take off after that you just press mr autop and sit back and enjoy the hangover
Yeah, until something goes wrong. Then ur screwed
My brother’s wife used to share a house many years ago with other girls, one’s boyfriend was a pilot with a big parcel company. My brother used to tell me stories about this bloke, how he’d fall out the door at 4am and be taking off at 7 or 8am that morning, this was commonplace and not just a one off. He did say he was a nice bloke.
This news is several days old. He passed the test at the station, nothing to see here MOVE ON
ZZZZZ
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