It is a serious blunder for a pilot, who has betrayed passengers' trust.
A Japan Airlines copilot was arrested by British police just before he was about to board a Haneda-bound flight departing from London.
He was arrested because he was found to have a breath alcohol level more than 10 times Britain's legal limit for a pilot. The driver of a Heathrow Airport crew bus noticed the smell of alcohol on his breath.
The copilot has reportedly admitted that he had drunk at least two bottles of wine and more than 1.8 liters of beer over six hours at the bar and in his room at the hotel where he was staying. The amount of alcohol detected was at a level that would have revoked an automobile driver's license under Japanese law.
It must be said that the copilot lacked a sense of having the passengers' lives in his hands.
The copilot reportedly explained it away, saying, "I felt a little sluggish." Under the Civil Aeronautics Law as well as JAL's in-house rules, any drinking that would impede one's duty as a flight crew member is prohibited.
It is also problematic that in the airline's own breath test -- taken prior to the flight -- his drunkenness went undetected.
The copilot had undergone a pre-flight breath test at JAL's airport office, together with the two captains who were scheduled to be on duty as members of the crew. It was an old type of breath-testing device, where the testee breathes into a detector. JAL sees the possibility that the copilot cheated the test.
The captains and others around the copilot said they neither noticed the smell of alcohol on his breath nor any abnormalities. If that was true, they seriously lacked any sense of awareness. It is highly likely that the copilot could have served as a crew member if the bus driver had not pointed out the smell of alcohol on him.
Tighten rules on alcohol
Last month at an ANA Group company, a captain who had consumed alcoholic beverages, including beer, the night before his flight was unable to operate a flight due to being in poor physical condition, resulting in five domestic flights being delayed.
Under the Civil Aeronautics Law, there is no specific limit for alcohol concentration in a breath test, and such testing is not required by the law. This probably stems from the trust that is put in pilots' supposedly high professional ethics.
Haven't pilots, who are supposed to discipline themselves, been losing their restraint? In May there was even an incident in which a male cabin attendant aboard an international JAL flight consumed alcohol secretly in an airplane toilet while he was on duty.
It is reasonable for the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry to consider tightening the limit so as to prevent a serious accident. Airlines, for their part, are required to thoroughly educate their crew members.
To secure passengers' safety, operators of public transportation systems must also do everything they can to manage the physical condition of their workers on board.
Last month in Yokohama, an accident occurred in which a fixed-route bus ran into a passenger car from behind, injuring or killing seven people, including passengers on the bus. The bus driver, who was arrested, had been diagnosed with sleep apnea syndrome (SAS). He had reportedly been operating the bus while receiving medical treatment, on the basis of his doctor's judgment.
Each public transportation system operator should reexamine whether there is any problem with the way they conduct pre-duty physical checkups of relevant workers.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 6, 2018)
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
