Pilots cleared of being drunk on jet after jail destroys blood sample
Blunder lets pair walk free – and they’ll get jobs back
TWO pilots accused of preparing to fly a plane full of passengers while drunk were cleared yesterday after their blood samples were destroyed and the case collapsed.
Jean-Francois Perreault, 41, and imran syed, 39, were cleared following the blunder which saw samples discarded by a prison guard and prison nurse while they were on remand.
The pilots were accused of being over the drink-fly limit before piloting an Air Transat flight carrying around 250 passengers from Glasgow international Airport to Toronto on July 18, 2016.
Perreault, of Ontario, was accused of being one-and-a-half times the limit, while syed, of Toronto, was said to have been nearly twoand-a-half times the limit.
The pair also faced a charge of threatening or abusive behaviour by shouting, swearing and fighting with others at the Hilton Hotel, Glasgow, and were arrested minutes before their flight was due to take off.
They will now be offered reinstatement with their employer and undergo retraining.
At a previous hearing, which could not be reported until now, Paisley sheriff Court heard that both men requested part of their blood samples when they were taken in July 2016 so they could have them independently analysed.
The samples were among their belongings when they arrived at HMP Low Moss on July 19, 2016, however prison staff did not know what to do with them.
Paul scoular, security manager at the prison, working for the scottish Prison service, said he was concerned the samples might no longer be of any worth because they had not been in cold storage.
He discussed his concerns with the pilots and said both men gave him their consent for the samples, known as B, to be destroyed.
Mr scoular, 46, passed the samples to the prison nurse who put them in a locked drawer and later destroyed them when she heard the two pilots had been released.
during the hearing in september last year, Mr scoular said he had ‘no previous experience of receiving a blood sample in to custody’ in a 20-year career, which saw him work in Low Moss Prison, Barlinnie and Cornton Vale.
Mr scoular said: ‘My understanding was they should’ve been stored in a cooled environment.
‘i asked Mara Fraser [the prison nurse] whether the samples would still have integrity or whether there may have been a deterioration due to them not being stored in a chilled environment.
‘i spoke to Mr syed and Mr Perreault and raised my concerns.’
He said he did not seek the advice of the police or prosecutors or bosses, and said he told the pilots he was going to destroy them.
He added: ‘There was no objection to me destroying the samples. There was no facility in the prison for storing them.’
However, while giving evidence, Mr Perreault said he did not give permission for his blood sample to be destroyed. He told the court: ‘i wanted to have my blood sample analysed.’
Following the hearing, sheriff James spy ruled that the samples were available for independent analysis at the time and that police and the Crown were not responsible for what happened to them later and that the case could proceed.
However the defence appealed against his decision, arguing that the blood samples should be inadmissible as evidence.
in February this year, the sheriff rejected the appeal, but the case then went to the Court of Appeal in edinburgh where the defence won, with judges saying the sheriff ought to have ruled that the samples were not admissible.
The case went back to Paisley sheriff Court ‘with the direction’ the prosecution’s samples should not be allowed as evidence.
Without the blood samples, there was no evidence to prove the pilots were over the limit.
A Crown Office spokesman said: ‘After full and careful consideration of the facts and circumstances, Crown counsel instructed there should be no further proceedings at this time.’
Both men were suspended by Air Transat after their arrests.
A spokesman for the airline said: ‘We note that all charges against our pilots have been dropped. They will need to undergo retraining as per applicable legislation and we will ensure their behaviour is exemplary.’
‘Samples should have been stored’ ‘I wanted my blood to be analysed’