Two good reasons pilots should NOT be armed:
Police: Pilots about to fly were drunk
BY LUISA YANEZ
The Miami Herald
Two America West pilots who police say were about to fly a jet with 124 passengers while drunk were ordered out of the cockpit and arrested Monday at Miami International Airport.
Police said both the pilot and the first officer had enough alcohol in their blood to flunk a drunk driving test in Florida, but yet were ready to fly the Airbus A319 to Phoenix.
They were identified as Thomas Porter Cloyd, 44, the pilot, and and copilot Christopher Scott Hughes, 41, both of Gilbert, Ariz.
With the cockpit crew hauled away, the passengers, who had no clue of what had transpired, were left stranded on the ramp for more than an hour. They were eventually flown by America West and other carriers to their destinations.
The pilots' destination was the county jail, where they were booked Monday after a Breathalyzer test confirmed suspicions that they were were legally drunk, police said.
Each was charged with a felony and two misdemeanors, Miami-Dade police said: operating an aircraft under the influence, driving under the influence and violating a county law prohibiting operating or piloting an aircraft drunk.
A bond hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. today.
America West's corporate office in Tempe, Ariz., issued a harsh statement, saying it was ready to fire the pilots. For now, they are suspended.
''We have a zero-tolerance policy about drinking on the job,'' airline spokeswoman Patty Nowack said. ``If our investigation shows that the results of the Breathalyzer test are correct, they will both be terminated.''
Cloyd has been employed by America West since 1990; Hughes joined in 1999. ''They have good work records with the company,'' Nowack said.
America West rules say crew members are forbidden to drink within 12 hours of a flight.
''The pilots are well aware of these rules,'' Nowack said.
The FAA said it knew of the arrests and was investigating, spokesman Christopher White said. The FAA has the power to suspend or revoke the pilots' certificates.
At 10:30 a.m. Cloyd and Hughes showed up at a security checkpoint outside Concourse G at MIA.
They had flown in from Phoenix on Sunday night and checked into a local hotel, Nowack said.
But screeners stopped the two, who were carrying plastic cups of steaming coffee.
A new rule, announced last week by the federal Transportation Security Administration, prohibits the carrying of beverage containers or open food through checkpoints -- just as rules bar items such as pocket knives and scissors.
Drinks, if spilled, can damage the X-ray machines, officials explained, but the real reason may be that weapons or flammable liquid could be sneaked onboard inside an innocent-looking coffee cup. When told they had to dump the coffee, the pilot and copilot balked.
''When they were told they were not allowed to come through the checkpoint with the drinks, they became very argumentative,'' said Miami-Dade police Maj. Mike Hammerschmidt.
During the tiff over the coffee, the security guards thought the pilots' behavior odd and that they smelled of alcohol.
''I don't know if they drank the coffee or dumped it, but they were allowed to go through the gate,'' Hammerschmidt said.
Alarmed, security personnel reported the two to the Transportation Security Administration, which alerted the Miami-Dade police unit at MIA.
Officers rushed to Gate G-4, arriving just as the jet was being pushed away from the gate.
''We ordered the plane back to the gate and asked the pilot and copilot to step out of the cockpit and onto the terminal. We told them we wanted to give them a standard DUI sobriety test, the kind given to drivers on the road,'' Hammerschmidt said. They agreed. They both flunked.
Officers then hauled the pilots to police headquarters for a Breathalyzer test.
The pilot, Cloyd, registered a .091 blood-alcohol level. The copilot, Hughes, blew .084, Hammerschmidt said.
In Florida, the legal limit for driving is .08.
Arizona driver's records indicate Cloyd and Hughes hold clean driving records in that state. Hammerschmidt said the arrest of a cockpit crew at MIA was a first for him.
''I can't remember ever having to remove pilots from a plane,'' he said.
Would the pilots have gotten through the checkpoint undetected in more security-lax, pre-Sept. 11 days? Hammerschmidt would not speculate.
''All I can say is that the security personnel did an excellent job,'' he said.
Arrests of drunken pilots are rare, but not unprecedented.
In May, three pilots with Las Vegas-based Eagle Air were grounded after allegations that on several occasions they stayed up late drinking before morning flights. One pilot allegedly stayed up until 2 a.m., then reported for duty at 6:10 a.m.
In 2001, Northwest Airlines fired a pilot who flew drunk from San Antonio to Minneapolis-St. Paul.
In 2000, the captain of a Royal Air Maroc Boeing-737 was refused permission to take off from an Amsterdam airport because he was drunk. And in the last two years, a drinking scandal has hit British Airways involving at least 11 pilots. The carrier has cracked down on pilots who drink after a former flight attendant claimed drinking was widespread.
Herald staff writer Ina Paiva Cordle and Herald researcher Elisabeth Donovan contributed to this report. |
