Drunk & Drive: Japan airlines Pilot got arrested

Tokyo, Nov 02: A Japan Airlines pilot who was arrested shortly before a flight for being drunk had almost 10 times the legal alcohol limit for a pilot, London police said Thursday.

The incident came only a day after another Japanese carrier reported multiple delays blamed on a hung-over pilot who called in sick.

JAL executives told reporters in Japan that the co-pilot cleared an in-house breath test but aroused the suspicion of a bus driver taking him to the plane from Heathrow Airport on Sunday.

The co-pilot, identified as Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, 42, was arrested by British police and required to undergo a blood test that confirmed those results.

"We are certain (the in-house breath test) wasn t conducted properly," JAL communications chief Muneaki Kitahara told reporters.

A spokesman for the London police said a test on the co-pilot taken 50 minutes before the flight s scheduled departure revealed 189 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood in his system -- almost 10 times the 20-milligramme limit for a pilot.

The drink-drive limit in England is 80 milligrammes.

The plane departed London after a delay of 69 minutes.