The Daily Telegraph has received a disturbing report of alcohol abuse by commercial airline pilots in Britain.
The report followed an incident last month in which a British Airways pilot at Arlanda airport near Stockholm was held by Swedish police and breathalysed as he prepared to fly to London.
Airport staff called police after they allegedly saw him swaying as he walked to where his Airbus A-320 plane was waiting. British Airways said it had not yet received the test results but if the pilot was found to have been drunk he would face dismissal.
This week a taxi driver who regularly takes pilots and crew to Stansted airport in Essex contacted The Daily Telegraph to say he is "always picking up airline crew and pilots from bars and taking them straight to work".
"You can smell the alcohol on them and sometimes they have trouble getting out of the car," he said. "Once a pilot fell down some stairs he was so drunk."
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was "very concerned" at the report.
"The onus is on pilots and crew to present themselves fit for work. People should come to us and report any problems," he said.
There are 10,000 commercial pilots in the UK, of which 12 to 15 a year lose their licence because of alcohol abuse, according to the CAA. Under British law, airline crew should "not be under the influence of drink or a drug to such an extent to impair capacity".
Most major airlines, including BA, KLM, Virgin Atlantic and Air France, stipulate that pilots should not drink alcohol for eight hours before starting work. There is, however, no legally specified limit.
That will change with the passage of the Railways and Transport Safety Bill, which is due to become law later this year.
Under the new law, pilots will only be allowed to have up to 20mg alcohol per 100ml of blood: a quarter of the 80mg limit for road-users.
As with drivers, the law will allow for breathalysing where there "are grounds for reasonable suspicion" but not for random testing. The law will also apply to cabin crew and air traffic controllers.
A spokeswoman for the CAA, which has long campaigned for a change in the law, said that the new bill represented a significant improvement.
But the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) said the new law could go even further. "Random testing would be a sensible precaution," said Simon Evans, the council's chief executive.
Those in favour of an even tougher law are also concerned by the fact that a pilot who has lost his driving licence as a result of drink-driving will still be entitled to fly a plane.
The pilots' union, BALPA, said the incidence of pilots flying while drunk was "very rare". The union welcomed the new law but said it was opposed to the idea of random testing for alcohol.
If you have information on pilots drinking heavily before flying, contact the Civil Aviation Authority on 01293 567171, write to us at The Daily Telegraph Travel Desk, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DT, or email
[email protected].
Report filed: 01/02/2003
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/tr...ixtrvhome.html