Angus McOatup
Because they have no power to detain him. Furthermore, it clearly demonstrates that in spite of the view of some on here, they do not decide the fitness of pilots, or anyone else, to fly.
Portside, he has been accused of having a blood alcohol concerntration above a prescibed limit. iain8867, is correct in that a smell of alcohol can come from anywhere, that is why he was breath tested. That he was then arrested means either he failed that screening test, or refused to take it. Either way, at the Police station he will have been offered a further test, which presumably he took, and will be given the result by post before he returns on his bail date.
If he is then charged, ie was oiver the prescribed limit, then it is for him to put foreward a defence, or to challange the evidence, be that of why he was required to take the test initially, or the result of any blood test. A court decides if he is guilty, no one else.
The allagation of trial by mob works both ways, both in defending him and finding him guilty.
What is a concern is that with the surrounding publicity over pilots being arrested, and the sentences given to those found guilty, that there are still people getting arrested for it.
Either, the message isn't sinking in, there is a problem with alcoholic pilots, or simply that people have no idea what they can and can't drink and the time it takes to get out of thier system.
I would suggest it is the last of those options, in which case, as I have suggested before, it may be solved by installing a self test kit in the loo's somewhere before crew check in. The cost is minimal, yes, it would invlove then either reporting sick, or explaining why you are unfit to fly, but at least it gives those who haven't thought a chance, those who are alcoholic an oportunity to reflect on thier habit and do something about it, and would focus everyone elses mind on the subject.