Drunken airline pilot jailed for 10 months
FOUR TIMES drink-fly limit before transatlantic trip
AN AIRLINE pilot has been jailed after reporting for work to fly 177 passengers to America while four times the legal drink-fly limit.
Glendon Gulliver, 63, had spent the previous night drinking whisky before he arrived at Glasgow Airport to take control of a Boeing 757.
He had been scheduled to pilot the United Airlines flight to Newark, New Jersey, but was asked to take a breath test at Glasgow Airport on August 3, 2019. It found the American pilot to be four times the limit for flight crew, which is 20mg of alcohol within 100ml of blood.
Jailing Gulliver for ten months, Sheriff Gillian Craig told him: ‘I find it hard to envisage a more responsible role than that of a pilot in a commercial aircraft – these people placed their lives in your hands.
‘People are right to expect the air crew are fit and able to perform their duties. They expect the pilots to be sober. There were 177 men, women and children. I dread to think what the consequences could’ve been.’
Gulliver, who appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court on Monday, was prosecuted under the Railways and Transport Safety Act.
His co-pilot was also arrested but subsequently released without charge.
The Daily Record reported that Gulliver had spent his stopover in Glasgow drinking whisky in a pub the night before his flight was due to depart.
The sheriff was told he was not used to the spirit and became so drunk that he fell over when he left the bar at around 9pm.
Airport staff were alerted to the former Lieutenant Commander’s condition by a member of the public via Twitter.
The tweet said: ‘Hi. A United Airlines pilot just walked out of a pub in Glasgow and fell over drunk about 21:00. Can he be breathalysed before the flight to New York on Saturday morning?’
Prosecutor David McDonald said that Mark Scott, duty manager at Glasgow Airport, was made aware of the tweet at 7am on the morning of the flight and contacted police. Gulliver’s solicitor Iain Cahill said his client realised he had a drink problem and sought help for his addiction.
He had undergone a 60-day rehabilitation at a treatment centre in Nashville, Tennessee, and been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since his arrest.
Mr Cahill added: ‘Due to the severity of the offence and the shame, it caused him to retire.’
He had asked for Gulliver to be spared prison, however Sheriff Craig jailed him for ten months, reduced from 15 as he admitted his guilt.
The drink limit for driving a car in Scotland is 50mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood.
‘Shame caused him to retire’