There were at least about 500 cases in the past year in which All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines pilots failed to take preflight alcohol tests, the transport ministry has said.
The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry inspected the offices of the two airlines last month to probe how they were enforcing the rules for preflight alcohol tests. JAL and ANA group pilots had been found to be drinking excessively before flights in October.
ANA conducted about 110,000 preflight alcohol tests at Haneda Airport between November last year and October this year, but there was no record of tests being conducted in 393 cases.
ANA checked with the pilots in question following the finding, and found they gave several reasons for failing to take the tests. They included, "I was busy because a flight I was initially scheduled to serve on suddenly changed" and "I thought the test was unnecessary because I'm unable to drink alcohol."
There were also 100 to 200 cases in which JAL pilots on domestic flights failed to take preflight alcohol tests since August last year, with reasons given including, "I was busy at a preflight meeting."
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