Pilot jailed for trying to fly plane 10 times over limit

A JAPANESE pilot who was preparing to take off from Heathrow Airport while about 10 times over the alcohol limit for pilots has been jailed.

First officer Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, 42, was arrested at the airport after failing a breath test 50 minutes before the Japan Airlines (JAL) flight was due to take off with him in the cockpit.

The co-pilot was caught after security noticed he smelled strongly of alcohol, seemed drunk and had “glazed eyes”, while an officer later noticed he had “difficulty standing straight”.

As he was jailed for 10 months at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Phillip Matthews said Jitsukawa was clearly “very intoxicated” prior to the evening take-off and had been drinking that day.

“You are an experienced pilot but you had clearly been drinking for a long period up to a time shortly before you were due to go into that plane,” the judge said.

Prosecutor Douglas Adams said Jitsukawa was challenged by security staff on the plane after colleagues noticed alcohol on his breath and believed he was “drunk”. After he was challenged, he said he had drank whisky the night before but had already passed a breathalyser test.

A preliminary breath test found him to be more than 10 times the limit with 93mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, while the legal flying limit is 9mg. The drink-drive limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 35mg.

Jitsukawa, who was cleanshaven and in a grey tracksuit as he appeared on a videolink from Wandsworth prison, kept his eyes closed through much of the hearing.

Bill Emlyn Jones, mitigating, said the sole carer of three young children had dreamed of being a pilot since he was a boy – but the realities of long-haul travel had destroyed this.

“He said he became unhappy, suffered with sleeplessness, started feeling depressed,” the lawyer said adding the pilot feels an “abject disgrace”.