Drunken Delta Air Lines pilot jailed for 6 months in UK

Melbourne, Jan 24 (ANI): A Delta Air Lines pilot was jailed for six months by a UK court after he turned up drunk at a London airport to fly a transatlantic passenger plane.

Isleworth Crown Court in west London heard that security officers at Heathrow airport stopped George La Perle, 49, from Boston, on November 1 last year because he reeked of alcohol.

When questioned, the First Officer said he was flying to New York - when his actual destination was Detroit, and he was later discovered to have four-and-a-half times the legal amount of alcohol for pilots in his blood.

La Perle, who has 20 years of flying experience, was due to be one of three pilots in the cockpit of a Boeing 767, with 240 passengers on board.

According to the Daily Mail, he pleaded guilty to performing an aviation function with excess alcohol and was jailed on January 21.

"The consequences for the passengers on that plane, if you had piloted for any stage of that journey, which was a distinct possibility bearing in mind that is what you were employed to do, were potentially catastrophic," News.com.au quoted Judge Phillip Matthews as telling him. (ANI)