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A pilot had exceeded the legal alcohol limit 10 times before flying from London Heathrow Airport to Tokyo, Japan.
Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, a co – pilot of Japan Airlines, was stopped before the plane after a bus driver at Heathrow had noticed that he smelled of alcohol.
The 42-year-old later confessed to having drunk more than 1.5 liters of wine and more than 1.8 liters of beer in a hotel bar and in his room the night before, the channel said. Japanese television NHK.
Jitsukawa was to fly a Boeing 777, seating up to 244 passengers.
As a result of the incident, the plane departed with an hour late and was piloted by two pilots instead of three.
After an alcohol test after the suspicion arose, the police discovered that he had 189 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood in his system.
The legal limit for the service is 20 mg, which makes it 10 times more than the limit of alcohol.
For drivers of the road in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the driving limit in the state of drunkenness is 80 mg.
According to NHK, the first pre-flight test failed to detect the presence of alcohol in Jitsukawa's breath.
Japan Airlines officials said they believed the pilot had tampered with the test to hide his drinking.
Their test method will now be changed to avoid further fraud, reported NHK.
"We are certain that (the internal breath test) has not been performed properly," Muneaki Kitahara, head of communications at Japan Airlines, told a press conference.
Jitsukawa pleaded guilty to exceeding the alcohol limit at Uxbridge's trial court on Thursday, according to a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police.
He has been detained and will be sentenced to Isleworth Crown Court on November 29.
"The company sincerely apologizes to passengers and all those affected by the actions of the employee," Japan Airlines said in a statement.
Express.co.uk contacted the airline to share its comments on the incident.
Following the Japan Airlines incident, Japan's Ministry of Transportation issued a document urging all Japanese airlines to take action against excessive drinking by flight crews.
Each airline will have to submit a report detailing the measures taken by the end of the month.
The incident comes after a pilot of the Japanese airline All Nippon Airways had too much hangover to work.
Five flights were delayed due to the pilot's illness due to alcohol. He had been drinking until 10 pm on October 24 and had to call the sick the next day, after realizing that he could no longer fly his flight by 8:10, reported the Japan Times.
The news comes as the UK Home Office is about to launch a review of licensing legislation at UK airports and decide to extend the regulation of shopping streets to airport terminals.
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