From the Sunday Washington Post, bowdlerized for PPRuNe:
Pilot Pulled From Dulles Flight Faces Charge Over Drinking
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 21, 2003; Page A14
A Virgin Atlantic Airways pilot who was removed from a flight at Dulles International Airport was charged yesterday with operating an aircraft under the influence of alcohol and ordered to appear in Loudoun County District Court tomorrow.
[redacted], 55, was taken to the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center in Leesburg just before midnight Friday, about five hours after he was to fly a Boeing 747 with almost 400 passengers to London, authorities said. Flight VS022 was canceled before passengers boarded, and another pilot was to fly them across the Atlantic last night.
[redacted], a U.S. citizen based in Britain who has worked for Virgin for 14 years, was suspended immediately by the airline and faces up to five years in prison if convicted of the felony charge. The Federal Aviation Administration said it would conduct a civil investigation that could cost [redacted] his pilot's license.
Federal regulations prohibit consumption of alcohol within eight hours of flying and prohibit the pilot from having a blood-alcohol level above 0.04. It was unclear yesterday where and when [redacted] had been drinking and what his blood-alcohol level was. A person familiar with the case said [redacted] had piloted a flight from London to Dulles that arrived Thursday night and had spent the next 24 hours here, staying at a hotel in the D.C. area.
"We're shocked and surprised," said John Riordan, a Virgin Atlantic spokesman. "This pilot has an unblemished record, and it's very out of character for him."
Riordan said the airline put all 383 passengers up at hotels and gave each a voucher for a free flight anywhere Virgin flies. Virgin CEO Sir Richard Branson wrote a letter of apology that was to be given to each passenger on the replacement flight to London last night.
The incident spotlighted what some airline safety experts say could be a growing problem in the industry. There have been at least five cases of pilots being removed from commercial aircraft in the United States for drinking in the past 17 months and additional examples overseas, said Barry Sweedler, the former head of the National Transportation Safety Board's Office of Safety Recommendations. He said it was unclear whether the numbers were increasing or whether more pilots were simply being caught by intensified security since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"It's not a major aviation safety issue, but it is a troubling one," said Sweedler, who now edits an aviation safety newsletter. "This is sort of a wake-up call to the industry. And the Dulles incident is very serious. He was very close to flying that plane."
William Shumann, an FAA spokesman, said the agency "obviously is treating this very, very seriously." But he noted that there were more than 60,000 licensed pilots in the United States. "If you have a few cases of pilots who are, if you will, flying drunk, that's a very small number."
If the FAA determines that [redacted] violated U.S. air regulations, he could lose his pilot's license if that license were issued in the United States, Shumann said. If [redacted] has a British license, the FAA would alert British authorities and leave any action up to them. Virgin Atlantic could not say yesterday what type of license [redacted] holds.
To obtain a U.S. pilot's license, [redacted] would have had to pass a medical regimen that includes physical exams every six months -- co-pilots get them only once a year -- and random drug and alcohol testing.
Law enforcement officials said the incident began when someone at the airport smelled alcohol on [redacted]. It was unclear whether a screener noticed the smell or whether it was picked up when [redacted] was near the ticket counter area.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department was contacted and notified Virgin Atlantic. Airline officials boarded the plane and spoke to [redacted] in the cockpit before summoning airport police, who escorted him off, said Tara Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the authority. She said [redacted] was cooperative when taken off the plane.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Dec20.html