A DELTA Air Lines pilot was jailed for six months by a UK court for turning up drunk in London to fly a transatlantic passenger plane, according to British media said today.
George La Perle, from Boston, was stopped by security officers at Heathrow airport at 8.30am on November 1 last year because he reeked of alcohol, Isleworth Crown Court in west London was told.
When asked, the 49-year-old First Officer said he was flying to New York - when his actual destination was Detroit.
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.
He pleaded guilty to performing an aviation function with excess alcohol and was jailed on Friday, according to the Daily Mail - however reports only began to circulate today.
Judge Phillip Matthews told him: "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."
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