Drink case against pilots fails after blood samples destroyed
A CASE against two Canadian pilots accused of preparing to fly a passenger plane while under the influence of alcohol collapsed yesterday after their blood samples were destroyed at a Scottish prison.
The Court of Appeal ruled the Crown had not met its duty to supply Jeanfrançois Perreault and Imran Syed with their part of the blood sample used to test for alcohol levels.
Prosecutors said that after “full and careful consideration” of the facts there would be no further proceedings.
Mr Perreault, 41, and Mr Syed, 39, were arrested on July 18 2016 before they were due to take off on the Air Transat flight from Glasgow to Toronto. Syed, from Toronto, was accused of performing “an activity ancillary to an aviation function” when he allegedly had 49mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, more than double the legal limit of 20. Perreault, from the province of Ontario, faced the same charge with an alleged 32mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. They had denied the charge.
The delayed Airbus flight set off with a different crew the next day. About 250 passengers spent the night in hotels.
At a previous hearing, which could not be reported until now, Paisley Sheriff Court heard that both men requested part of their blood samples so that they could have them independently analysed. The samples were among their belongings when they arrived at HMP Low Moss on July 19 2016, but 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 blood samples might no longer be of any worth because they had not been in cold storage. He said both men gave him their consent for the samples, known as B, to be destroyed. He passed the samples to the prison nurse who put them in a locked drawer and later destroyed them when she heard the pilots had been released.
The Court of Appeal overturned a ruling by Sheriff James Spy at Paisley Sheriff Court that the case could proceed, saying that sample B was not admissible. It was confirmed yesterday that the case had collapsed.
A Crown Office spokesman said it was working with Police Scotland to ensure proper processes and guidance covering the storage of samples.
Both men were suspended by Air Transat, but the airline said it would meet them to plan their reinstatement as “we have no evidence that they have broken any law nor our internal rules”.