- A United Airlines pilot showed up for work over six-times the legal alcohol limit, Le Parisien reported.
- “He was staggering slightly, his eyes were glassy and his mouth pasty,” a police officer said.
- He was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and had his licence suspended for a year.
A United Airlines pilot who showed up to work under the influence of alcohol was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence by a French court on Tuesday, Le Parisien reported.
The 63-year-old American, identified only as Henry W, was meant to fly from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Washington Dulles Airport in Virginia on Sunday, according to the French newspaper.
The pilot told the court he only had two glasses of wine the previous night, but police officers said he was “showing signs of obvious drunkenness” when he turned up at 3 p.m., The Local reported.
Le Parisien reports the pilot had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.132%. That’s more than six-times the legal limit for pilots in Europe, and three-times the Federal Aviation Administration’s limit.
“He was staggering slightly, his eyes were glassy and his mouth pasty,” a police officer told the court, according to The Local.
The pilot was also fined 4,500 euros and his pilot licence suspended for a year, the outlet reported.
In 2019, United Airlines tightened its "bottle to throttle" rule for pilots drinking alcohol, saying they must have their last drink 12 hours before reporting for duty, Skift reported.
That came a week after two United pilots were arrested in Scotland on suspicion of being drunk less than two hours before they were due to fly to Newark.
United Airlines and Charles de Gaulle Airport did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, sent outside US working hours.
