Singapore Air Fires Pilot for Failing Pre-Flight Alcohol Test
Singapore Air Fires Pilot for Failing Pre-Flight Alcohol Test
(Bloomberg) -- More pilots in Asia are showing up sloshed to work.
Singapore Airlines Ltd. became the latest carrier to report dealing with inebriated staff, firing a pilot for failing an alcohol test in September before a flight from Melbourne. The employment of the pilot, who wasn’t identified, was terminated after a random check by Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority found “higher than suitable blood alcohol limit,” Singapore Air said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg News Friday.
There’s been a spate of alcohol-related incidents among Asian airlines recently. Japan Airlines Ltd. managers apologized and took a pay cut after a drunk pilot showed up for duty to fly the London-Tokyo route on Oct. 28 and was found to have consumed excessive alcohol. In November, an Air India pilot scheduled to fly the Delhi-London route tested positive on a breath analyzer test.
In December, South Korea’s transport ministry suspended the license of a pilot of budget carrier Jin Air Co. for 90 days for failing an alcohol test before a flight and imposed a 210-million-won ($188,000) penalty on the carrier. In December, a Japan Air cabin attendant was found drunk while on flight and earlier this month an ANA pilot gave wrong information about liquor consumption, the companies said.
--With assistance from Kiyotaka Matsuda.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kyunghee Park in Singapore at kpark3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anand Krishnamoorthy at anandk@bloomberg.net, Sam Nagarajan
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