Pilot jailed for being over drink limit at Birmingham Airport before flight

Mar 28 2009 by Gary Young, Birmingham Mail

Civil Aviation Authority medics say Kyagera is fit to fly again, but a criminal conviction means he will not be considered for airport security clearance for ten years.

Judge Cleary told him: “You were clearly unfit to take this aircraft into the air. The risks were unimaginable: the danger to the lives of all 229 passengers and crew on board and to the public on the ground is self-evident.

“This sentence should deter others from compromising the high safety expected of airline pilots.”

Afterwards, a spokesman for Thomson Airways said: “We adhere to a very strict alcohol and drugs policy and treat all such matters with the utmost importance. The employee concerned is now no longer with the company following their dismissal for this incident.

“The safety of passengers and crew is the airline’s number one priority at all times and Thomson Airways takes a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour among its staff.”