Alkohol og Japan - Besetningen må nå ta alkotest ETTER flygingen - De drikker av lasset.... - Curt Lewis

Pilots will be required to take post-flight alcohol tests (Japan) Transport ministry officials inspect Japan Airlines Co.'s office at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in November. (Asahi Shimbun file photo) The transport ministry will require domestic airline pilots to undergo post-duty alcohol tests to ensure they have not cheated in the pre-boarding screening process or consumed booze during the flights, an interim report showed Dec. 25 The measure will start by the end of March. The ministry has been considering new rules since a co-pilot for Japan Airlines Co. was arrested at Heathrow Airport in London in October after failing a sobriety test before a flight to Tokyo. He had apparently cheated on an in-house breath-alcohol test also attended by his colleagues. The report also says all tests must use sophisticated breath-alcohol devices. Pilots employed by foreign airlines and those who fly private aircraft will not be subject to the mandatory alcohol tests, but they may face unannounced testing during the ministry's on-the-spot inspections. The ministry has already announced a blanket guideline that limits all pilots, including those working for foreign airlines and those licensed to fly only private aircraft, to 0.09 milligram of alcohol per 1 liter of breath. But the rules will be stricter for pilots of the 67 domestic airlines. They will be prohibited from flying if any trace of alcohol is detected in the tests. http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201812260029.html Back to Top

JAL probe finds flight attendant consumed alcohol while on duty, citing empty mini-bottle of Champagne An internal probe at Japan Airlines Co. has concluded that a female flight attendant who tested positive for alcohol last week had consumed alcohol while on duty, the airline said Tuesday. The cabin attendant tested positive in two Breathalyzer tests conducted after a colleague noticed that her breath smelled of alcohol during a Tokyo-Honolulu flight, and she was removed from duty for the remainder of the flight, JAL said. "An unserved (6 ounce or 200 ml) bottle of Champagne for premium economy was found empty in the galley area," JAL said in a release, citing that fact as one basis for the conclusion. The probe also revealed that a total of three crew members had smelled alcohol on her breath, and four reported unusual behavior, while a similar report about her smelling of alcohol was made in November last year. No alcohol was detected in a pre-flight Breathalyzer test but the two tests aboard the flight recorded 0.15 milligrams and 0.1 mg of alcohol per liter of breath. JAL sets a limit of 0.1 mg per liter for pilots. President Yuji Akasaka and Eri Abe, the head of the cabin attendants division, will each take a salary deduction for one month, 20 and 10 percent respectively, to take responsibility for the incident, the airline said. Recently a series of drinking-related incidents have occurred involving JAL. The airline received a business improvement order from the transport ministry last Friday - its first since 2005 - after one of its pilots was convicted in the U.K. for heavy drinking that delayed a London-Tokyo flight. The airline said on Thursday that another pilot had evaded Breathalyzer tests prior to flights over 100 times since last year. Alcohol tests are currently not mandatory in Japan and the nation's airlines set their own regulations. After the recent revelation of drinking-related incidents at JAL and some other Japanese airlines, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has decided to mandate alcohol tests for pilots and set legal limits.