Sun, Dec 10, 2006
Ex-Emirates Captain Gets Four Months Jail Time
Australian pilot and
ex-captain for Emirates John Cronly-Dillon listened Friday to
scathing remarks from a UK judge before receiving his four-month
jail sentence for attempting to fly an airliner drunk.
Cronly-Dillon had showed at Heathrow to captain an Emirates
airliner to Dubai when concerned security personnel alerted police
to his erratic behavior.
Police officers arrived and administered a standard road-side
breath test which he failed. Further analysis of Cronly-Dillon's
blood after his arrest showed alcohol in amounts seven times over
the legal limit.
Cronly-Dillon pleaded guilty to one count of "performing an
activity ancillary to an aviation function" while over the legal
alcohol limit. Before sentencing him, Judge Usha Karu recounted the
details of the case including Cronly-Dillon's actions at the
airport that led to his arrest.
Judge Karu said security officers found Cronly-Dillon's
red-faced with spots on his cheeks and alcohol on his breath. In
response to items being removed from his luggage he made the
irrational comment "I would not blow up my own plane."
She also noted he ate a whole packet of chewing gum and drank a
lot of water.
The judge all but rejected his Cronly-Dillon's claim he didn't
think he was over the limit. He further claimed he'd followed the
12-hour bottle-to-throttle rule.
She summed her comments before sentencing with, "The courts take
a very dim view of passengers who get drunk on an aircraft, and it
is much worse if it is the pilot, who has a high level of duty of
care to those he would have been looking after."
Cronly-Dillon reportedly showed no reaction when Judge Karu read
his sentence and ordered immediate imprisonment thus bringing an
humiliating end to an otherwise unblemished 25-year flying
career.
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