After being detained at Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport on Sunday on suspicion of being six times above the legal alcohol limit, United Airlines Captain received a one-year suspended prison sentence and a 12-month flight ban.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the 63-year-old American pilot was removed from a United Airlines Boeing 777 by Gendarmes and put into jail after he failed a breathalyzer test for alcohol.
The pilot was discovered by the police to have a “pasty mouth, glassy eyes, and difficulty expressing himself,” according to the police. The Captain took a blood test at the police station, and the results revealed that he had 0.59 mg/l and 0.56 mg/l of alcohol in his system—six times the French limit for the flight crew.
The pilot was scheduled to fly United Airlines flight UA331 to Washington, DC, but he was detained just an hour before takeoff, forcing the airline to cancel the flight.
On Monday afternoon, United Airlines flew the aircraft back to Dulles.
After the scheduled court hearing, the unidentified pilot was kept in jail until Tuesday night. The pilot’s claim that he had only two glasses of wine the night before his detention was disputed by the judges in the case.
The individual was also given a suspended prison sentence, a €4,500 fine, and a one-year flight ban.
A 62-year-old Delta Air pilot was detained at Edinburgh Airport last month on suspicion of having consumed more alcohol than was permitted.
United Airlines did not reply to a request for comment.
