CaptainToBe
22nd Jul 2005, 09:00
Two former US pilots convicted of operating a packed passenger plane while drunk were sent to prison by a Florida judge, who called their crime "outrageous and horrendous".
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge David Young sentenced Thomas Cloyd, 47, to five years behind bars - the maximum term - and Christopher Hughes, 44, to two and a half years in prison for trying to fly from Miami International Airport on July 1, 2002, after a night of guzzling beer.
"What you did was absolutely wrong, outrageous and horrendous," Young said before passing down the sentences.
"... If there was an emergency, if something horrendous happened, you're talking about not only your lives but the lives of the passengers, the lives of the stewards, the lives of the people who would have been hit by an aircraft if the aircraft would have ... crashed into homes, into neighbourhoods."
They were charged under Florida state law prohibiting operating an airplane while intoxicated.
The America West pilots' Airbus 319 aircraft was being towed to the runway for takeoff to Phoenix with 124 passengers and three flight attendants aboard when it was ordered back to the terminal. A security screener had reported that the pilots smelled of alcohol.
They had spent the evening before playing pool and drinking at Mr Moe's Cantina in Miami's leafy Coconut Grove area. They left the bar around 5am after running up a tab for 14 jumbo glasses of beer - the equivalent of nearly 22 pints (10.5 litres) - and showed up late for the 10.30am flight.
The pilots' lawyers had argued unsuccessfully during trial that neither should be convicted because they were not really operating the plane at the time in question. They said it was under control of a tug truck driver towing it to the runway.
America West fired Cloyd and Hughes shortly after their arrest and the Federal Aviation Administration revoked their pilots' licences. FAA rules bar pilots from consuming alcohol for eight hours before a flight.
Reuters
I think I was the first to post this article....but, is it just me or are pilots getting caught in the act more and more these days?
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge David Young sentenced Thomas Cloyd, 47, to five years behind bars - the maximum term - and Christopher Hughes, 44, to two and a half years in prison for trying to fly from Miami International Airport on July 1, 2002, after a night of guzzling beer.
"What you did was absolutely wrong, outrageous and horrendous," Young said before passing down the sentences.
"... If there was an emergency, if something horrendous happened, you're talking about not only your lives but the lives of the passengers, the lives of the stewards, the lives of the people who would have been hit by an aircraft if the aircraft would have ... crashed into homes, into neighbourhoods."
They were charged under Florida state law prohibiting operating an airplane while intoxicated.
The America West pilots' Airbus 319 aircraft was being towed to the runway for takeoff to Phoenix with 124 passengers and three flight attendants aboard when it was ordered back to the terminal. A security screener had reported that the pilots smelled of alcohol.
They had spent the evening before playing pool and drinking at Mr Moe's Cantina in Miami's leafy Coconut Grove area. They left the bar around 5am after running up a tab for 14 jumbo glasses of beer - the equivalent of nearly 22 pints (10.5 litres) - and showed up late for the 10.30am flight.
The pilots' lawyers had argued unsuccessfully during trial that neither should be convicted because they were not really operating the plane at the time in question. They said it was under control of a tug truck driver towing it to the runway.
America West fired Cloyd and Hughes shortly after their arrest and the Federal Aviation Administration revoked their pilots' licences. FAA rules bar pilots from consuming alcohol for eight hours before a flight.
Reuters
I think I was the first to post this article....but, is it just me or are pilots getting caught in the act more and more these days?