3 Pilots Sentenced to Jail for Flying Jet While Drunk
Three former Northwest Airlines pilots convicted of flying a jetliner with 91 passengers aboard while drunk were sentenced Friday to jail terms ranging from 12 to 16 months.
The case was the first in which the government brought criminal charges against airline pilots for drunk flying, and it had been closely watched by the aviation industry.
The pilot, Norman Prouse, a 51-year-old ex-Marine combat veteran from Conyers, Ga., was sentenced to 16 months in jail. Robert Kirchner, 35, of Highland Ranch, Colo., the second officer, and Joseph Balzer, 34, of Antioch, Tenn., the flight engineer, were each sentenced to a year in jail.
Lawyers for the trio had contended their performance was not impaired and said that was proven because the March 8 flight from Fargo, N.D., to Minneapolis was uneventful.
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