Post #34 on this thread (page2) quotes:
'A breath test showed 45 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath, five times the 9mcg limit for pilots. A blood test at 11.45am revealed 42 milligrams in 100ml of blood, twice the 20mg limit.'
The legal limit for drivers in the UK is 35 Microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath, therefore the pilot was actually in excess of the drink drive limit and 5 x the Pilots limit when he was first breathalysed.
(35mcg/100ml breath = 80mg/100ml blood).
If it could have been proven that he had driven to the airport to commence his duty then he could have been banned from driving aswell!!
It is not clear form the infomation on this thread how long elapsed between the initial breath test and the blood test being taken. However it must have been long enough for his alcohol level to drop from five times the pilots limit to just over twice.
I see this sentance as not only a punishment for the pilot concerned but more so a deterrent for other pilots.
A lot of posts on this thread compare drink driving with this incident, the maximum number of deaths I have dealt with caused by drink driving in one incident is three, how many deaths could have been caused in this incident?
In my eyes it gives the sentence a bit more perspective.