Ex-Emirates Captain Gets Four Months Jail Time

Australian pilot and ex-captain for Emirates John Cronly-Dillon listened Friday to scathing remarks from a UK judge before receiving his four-month jail sentence for attempting to fly an airliner drunk.

Cronly-Dillon had showed at Heathrow to captain an Emirates airliner to Dubai when concerned security personnel alerted police to his erratic behavior.

Police officers arrived and administered a standard road-side breath test which he failed. Further analysis of Cronly-Dillon's blood after his arrest showed alcohol in amounts seven times over the legal limit.

Cronly-Dillon pleaded guilty to one count of "performing an activity ancillary to an aviation function" while over the legal alcohol limit. Before sentencing him, Judge Usha Karu recounted the details of the case including Cronly-Dillon's actions at the airport that led to his arrest.

Judge Karu said security officers found Cronly-Dillon's red-faced with spots on his cheeks and alcohol on his breath. In response to items being removed from his luggage he made the irrational comment "I would not blow up my own plane."

She also noted he ate a whole packet of chewing gum and drank a lot of water.

The judge all but rejected his Cronly-Dillon's claim he didn't think he was over the limit. He further claimed he'd followed the 12-hour bottle-to-throttle rule.

She summed her comments before sentencing with, "The courts take a very dim view of passengers who get drunk on an aircraft, and it is much worse if it is the pilot, who has a high level of duty of care to those he would have been looking after."

Cronly-Dillon reportedly showed no reaction when Judge Karu read his sentence and ordered immediate imprisonment thus bringing an humiliating end to an otherwise unblemished 25-year flying career.

FMI: www.cps.gov.uk