Pilot at LAX Grounded by Alcohol

A US Airways pilot was detained at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of being drunk before his flight Friday, and was later found to have alcohol in his blood.

The pilot, who was not identified, was scheduled to fly US Airways Flight 18 to Philadelphia, but the airline removed him from duty.

The search for a replacement pilot delayed the flight more than four hours after its scheduled 1:45 p.m. departure.

Airport security officials said a passenger smelled alcohol on the pilot’s breath at the security checkpoint in Terminal One and reported it to screening officials, who summoned police.

The pilot was taken into custody for tests and failed a field sobriety test, security officials said.

At the LAX police station, a breath test was repeatedly administered to the pilot, airport officials said. They said that on the fourth test, the pilot’s blood alcohol level registered 0.04%. US Airways contends that the official reading was 0.03%.

The higher level meets, but does not exceed, the legal limit allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration, US Airways spokesman Phil Gee said. The FAA’s rule for pilots is half California’s 0.08% blood-alcohol limit for driving.

The FAA temporarily took possession of the pilot’s flight certificate, and an investigation was launched, airport security sources said. The FBI is also looking into the incident, they said.

Gee insisted that the pilot had not violated the law. He said that US Airways has stricter standards for drinking and flying than the FAA, however, and that the airline will investigate the pilot.

He declined to give specifics about US Airways’ internal rules for drinking and flying, saying only that they were several times more stringent than the government’s.

“Legally, the pilot still could have operated the aircraft. However, we hold employees to a higher standard, and we want to continue the investigation ourselves,” Gee said.

If the pilot is found to have violated US Airways’ policy, “we have absolutely no tolerance for matters like this,” he added.

It remained unclear Friday how long before the flight the pilot was drinking. US Airways officials said he was stopped more than an hour before the flight. But airport officials believe that it was less than an hour before the scheduled departure. Airport police referred calls to the airline.

The issue of commercial airline pilots’ drinking has come under scrutiny in recent months with a few high-profile incidents.

In February, an American Airlines pilot was arrested in Britain on suspicion of being drunk shortly before a flight to Chicago.

And last summer, two former America West pilots were convicted of operating a plane leaving Miami while drunk.