Wed, Mar 21, 2007
First Officer Said He Never Intended To Fly
James Yates told a jury in Manchester, England this week he
never intended to fly when he showed up at that city's airport last
year, smelling of alcohol... and on Wednesday, the jury agreed.
BBC News reports jurors in the Manchester Minshull Street Crown
Court found Yates, 46, not guilty of charges the American Airlines
first officer planned to serve on the flight crew of a Boeing 767
departing for Chicago on February 11, 2006.
Throughout the proceedings, Yates maintained he was only at the
airport to tell his fellow pilots he was too ill to fly.
Authorities arrested Yates at a security checkpoint at the
airport, after he failed to show a valid ID. A blood test
administered at the police station found Yates had a blood-alcohol
level six times the FAA's legal limit, the result of partying with
friends the night before. Yates told the court he had also taken
Ambien, a prescription sleep aid.
The Guardian newspaper reports the beleaguered FO was aided by
written testimony from Brigadier General Thomas Botchie, a senior
commander in the Ohio National Guard who has known Yates since the
1980s.
"I consider James to be a professional prepared to come to the
defense of his country," Botchie wrote. "It takes a certain caliber
of person to qualify. I have always found him to be a person of
high morals and trustworthy. My opinion is, if James says he's
telling the truth, he's telling the truth."
Yates, who officers said was unsteady on his feet, red-faced and
disheveled when he showed up at the checkpoint, never set foot on
the plane he was scheduled to fly.
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