Jury Gets Case of Ex-Northwest Pilots Accused of Flying Drunk

A federal jury on Thursday began deliberating the cases of three former Northwest Airlines pilots accused of being drunk when they flew a passenger plane from North Dakota to Minnesota.

U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum instructed the jury to consider separately whether the defendants are guilty of operating an aircraft while under the influence of alcohol.

Rosenbaum said jurors should consider this definition of being under the influence of alcohol: When a person is so affected by alcohol that he lacks “clearness of intellect and control of himself that he would otherwise have.”

In their closing arguments, defense attorneys said their clients may have used poor judgment by drinking the night before flying a Boeing 727 last March, but they are innocent of the charges of flying while intoxicated.

“It’s not against the law to drink alcohol and fly a plane. Maybe it should be,” said Peter Wold, attorney for Capt. Norman Lyle Prouse. “It’s only against the law if you are under the influence . . . and there is not one piece of evidence suggesting he (Prouse) was.”

Prouse, 51, of Conyers, Ga., 1st Officer Robert Kirchner, 36, of Highland Ranch, Colo., and flight engineer Joseph Balzer, 35, of Antioch, Tenn., have been on trial since July 25 on charges of operating an aircraft while under the influence of alcohol.

The case marks the U.S. Justice Department’s first prosecution under a 1988 federal law prohibiting operation of a common carrier while under the influence of alcohol. The law does not specify a blood-alcohol content for pilots. To return guilty verdicts, jurors must conclude that the pilots were impaired.