Foreign pilots are flouting UK drink rules, court hears

Foreign pilots are putting thousands of lives at risk by flying drunk from UK airports, it was claimed yesterday.

The shock revelation came as Pakistan International Airlines Captain Irfan Faiz was jailed for nine months for attempting to fly an Airbus 310 while more than three times over the Civil Aviation Authority limit.

The 55-year-old was seen stag­gering towards his cockpit as he prepared to take off from Leeds Bradford Inter­national Airport with 156 passengers bound for Islamabad.

Faiz’s former colleague Captain Shahid Hussain revealed in court that Pakistani rules allow pilots to drink “as much as they want so long as they leave a 12-hour gap between bottle and throttle”.

And Paul Greaney QC, defending, said Faiz, a father-of-two, “had no idea that he had failed to comply with the law of this country”.

The court heard Captain Fiaz, who had been with the airline for 25 years, claimed he had finished drinking a 750ml bottle of whisky at 3am on September 18. He was arrested in the cockpit at 9.15pm that day as he conducted pre-flight checks.

When Faiz was breathalyzed he was found to have 41microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The CAA limit is nine micrograms, while the drink-drive limit is 35.

He pleaded guilty to preparing to fly while impaired by drink.

Jailing Faiz at Leeds Crown Court Mr Justice Coulson said: “I find it extraordinary that a rule connected to pilots’ drinking can encompass any amount of alcohol consumption provided there is an amount of time to flying.”

The judge said he recognized Faiz had broken British law “inadvertently” but added: “I have to send a message that airline pilots in drink when about to fly will go to prison.”

A spokesman for the CAA said: “A pilot attempting to fly while under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs is a major threat to flight safety.”

Pakistan International Airlines flies from Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham and Heathrow.

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