It has been reported that a pilot of JetBlue, James Clifton was removed from the cockpit after he was suspected to have been intoxicated. The breathalyzer test was done and he was found to be drunk almost four times the limit.
James Clifton has already onboarded the plane and was about to a flight, but thankfully, he was stopped and was taken out of the flight, which delayed the entire flight. If he was not removed, there might have been a disastrous event.
This incident questions the procedure followed by the airlines to ensure whether pilots are in a sane state to board planes or not. Maybe leniency from the airlines and airports toward their employees caused this issue.
Who Is James Clifton?
James Clifton is a pilot who was removed from the cockpit and taken into custody after it was reported that he might be drunk. A TSA officer noticed him be impaired and informed the concerned authority.
The authority took action immediately and stopped the pilot from flying the plane. People have to thank the TSA officer for doing his duty properly; if it was not for him, a drunk man would have flown the plane.
James is 52 years old man, who has been flying for a long time. It is quite strange that an experienced pilot like him was so reckless. Now, this gives rise to other questions like whether he has done action like this before or not.
There is no excuse to act like this because intoxication cold leads to impairment of the brain, which could push a person to take a wrong decision. These careless actions risk the lives of everyone on board.
Jetblue Pilot Was Arrested For Suspected Drunk On Flight
JetBlue pilot was arrested after he was suspected to have been drinking by a TSA officer. He was removed from the cockpit and was taken for a breathalyzer test to verify if he was drunk or not.
The reading of the breathalyzer showed 0.17, which is too high compared to the limit of 0.04 for the pilots. Not only that it is even higher than the ones for road driver 0.8. He was taken into custody and was handed to airlines security.
Due to all this fiasco, the flight was delayed for more than four hours. The pilot will certainly be facing federal charges for his offense that endangered the lives of people on board and the property of airlines.
More details can be expected as the investigation proceed forward, and the case goes into the trial. James’s career is at risk because of his action.