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A co-pilot of Japan Airlines was arrested in London earlier this week after being found nearly ten times above the legal limit of alcohol shortly before take-off.
The drunken copilot, identified as Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, was arrested Sunday at London Heathrow airport after a test conducted just 50 minutes before takeoff, revealing the level of alcohol in his system, the BBC reported. It was detected by the sensitive nose of a bus driver, who smelled of alcohol and reported it to the police, according to the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
A test later revealed that Jitsukawa had 189 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, nearly 10 times the UK legal limit of 20 mg for pilots, according to the BBC. It had been scheduled to serve on a flight to Tokyo, which had taken off with just over an hour late. Jitsukawa was not on board.
Jitsukawa, 42, attributed the high alcohol content to heavy drinking the night before in his bar and hotel room, according to NHK.
He appeared in London court Thursday and pleaded guilty to exceeding the alcohol limit, according to the BBC. He is expected to remain in detention until the end of his sentence on 29 November.
The airline apologized, promising "immediate action to prevent any future event". She also announced that she would be launching a more sophisticated breathalyzer system to monitor the alcohol from her pilots overseas later this month, according to NHK. The new system, which is already in place for domestic Japanese flights, will send test results to Japan in real time.
The Japanese Ministry of Transport also responded to the incident by promising to introduce a national standard for blood alcohol levels in the pilot countries. Previously, the country had allowed airlines to set individual thresholds.
In another case last week, the Japanese airline All Nippon Airways was obliged to apologize after five flights had been delayed by a pilot on the hangover, reports the Associated Press.
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