Miami-Dade Officers: Pilots Smelled Of Alcohol, Failed DUI Test
POSTED: 8:43 am EDT May 27, 2005
UPDATED: 9:01 am EDT May 27, 2005
MIAMI -- A veteran Miami-Dade County Police sergeant testified Thursday that hours after two America West pilots left a sports bar from a night of drinking, they were still "impaired to the extent that they could not safely operate a vehicle."
Under Florida law, an airplane is classified as a vehicle.
Sgt. Steven Leibowitz said he tested pilot Thomas Cloyd and co-pilot Christopher Hughes after their plane was ordered back to its gate at Miami International Airport before it could take off for Phoenix.
Leibowitz said he tested the two and judged the alcohol level for both to be at 0.10. Florida's legal limit for driving is 0.08.
He said he was called to the America West gate at about 10:30 a.m. on July 1, 2002, and gave the test between 11:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. Earlier testimony showed the pilots left the bar in the trendy Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami at about 4:40 a.m.
Normally, Leibowitz testified, he would have had them perform three actions for a DUI test: walk a straight line and turn, stand on one leg, and follow his finger with their eyes.
But he could only perform the vision test because "you have to have flat, dry, hard ground to do the straight line and leg stand exercises," and the concourse was carpeted and it was raining outside.
He said neither man could follow his finger from left to right and back with their eyes moving in a smooth path. He said a nationally accepted mathematical formula equates the eye test with an alcohol level in the body, and based on that, the "alcohol level approximated 0.10" for each man.
Leibowitz will be cross-examined by defense lawyers when the trial resumes Tuesday.
Earlier, former officer John Methvin testified that the pilots smelled like alcohol when they left their cockpit.
"The captain exited the plane and asked me, 'Why was my plane being pulled back?' ... He appeared slightly agitated," Methvin testified. "I noticed alcohol on his breath."
Methvin also said he noticed alcohol on Hughes' breath, and said his eyes were bloodshot. He said he stopped Cloyd from getting back on the plane until it could be determined whether he was impaired.
On cross examination, Methvin acknowleged that neither Cloyd nor Hughes had slurred speech or stumbled when they walked.
The airline was towed back to the terminal after airport security workers reported noticing a strong odor of alcohol as the pilots boarded.
Cloyd and Hughes each face up to five years in prison if convicted and have already lost their commercial pilots' licenses.
Their attorneys said last week during opening statements that the pilots were not impaired and, besides, the steering was disengaged from the cockpit and neither pilot could actually operate the plane as it was being towed away from the gate.
The plane had 124 passengers and three flight attendants on board.
Prosecutors say that between them, Cloyd and Hughes ran up a $122 tab and consumed seven 34-ounce glasses and seven 16-ounce glasses of beer over a six-hour period at popular bar. At dinner before that, they consumed wine and Cloyd drank a martini.
The revelry ended about six hours before the flight was to depart. Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit commercial pilots from flying within eight hours of consuming alcohol.
On Wednesday a bartender and a videotape took center stage at the trial of two former America West pilots accused of trying to fly drunk.
The jury watched nearly two hours worth of surveillance video in which Thomas Cloyd and Christopher Hughes are seen playing pool and drinking at Mr. Moe's in Coconut Grove bar. That was just hours before their scheduled flight from Miami to Phoenix in July 2002.
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