Source: Japan Today Author: 10/23/2008
Subject Concerned: Government Aircrew Airlines Flight Delay
The breath alcohol level of an All Nippon Airways (ANA) copilot exceeded the company's upper limit on Oct. 22, causing a 90-minute delay to a flight from Naha airport in Okinawa Prefecture for Tokyo's Haneda airport, company officials said on Oct. 23.
The airline detected about 0.327 milligrams of alcohol in 1 liter of his breath, which surpasses the company's in-house allowable limit of 0.1 mg, in the test conducted at 7:16 a.m. on Oct. 22, about 50 minutes before a Boeing 747 for ANA's Flight 120 was scheduled to leave Naha.
The copilot said he had alcohol the night before, according to the officials.
The level fell below the limit in the retest held after 9 a.m.
Since there was nobody at the airport who could replace him, the airline had to put off the departure and allowed the copilot on board only after confirming that his alcohol level had lowered, they said.
The flight left at 9:33 a.m. that day.
"We apologize to the passengers for the trouble," an ANA official said. "We will take care so that such a thing will not happen again."
The airline told the 405 passengers on the plane that the flight had been delayed due to the pilot's illness, according to the officials.
The copilot and the pilot who drank with him said the copilot drank a jar of beer and some "awamori" spirits sometime before 8 p.m. on Oct. 21 - about 12 hours before the flight, the officials said.
Japan's Aviation Law prohibits pilots from drinking within eight hours of their flights.
ANA's in-house rule bans drinking within 12 hours of flights.
"There was no safety problem but we verbally cautioned ANA because the incident caused a delay," said a Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry official.