Pilot Arrested For Intoxication at CDG | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.23.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.24.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Wed, Aug 02, 2023

Pilot Arrested For Intoxication at CDG

UAL PIC BAC Nearly 3x Legal Limit

A French court has sentenced a 63-year-old United Airlines pilot to a six-month suspended sentence and revoked his flight privileges for one-year after he allegedly reported for flight duty in a state of intoxication.

Referred to in reports as simply “Henry W.,” the aviator arrived at Paris, France’s Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport to serve as the Pilot In Command (PIC) of a Boeing 777 slated to operate as United Airlines Flight UA331 to Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport (IAD).

CDG Airport security personnel, however, observed the pilot to be glassy-eyed and staggering, slightly, as he attempted to board the aircraft at approximately 15:00 Central European Summer Time (Zulu +2) on Sunday, 23 July 2023.

The aviator was subsequently subjected to two blood-alcohol tests which revealed his Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) to be 0.059-percent and 0.056-percent respectively. French aviation regulations limit pilots’ BAC to a maximum of 0.02-percent. Ergo, Henry W. turned up for work with a BAC nearly three-times greater than the legal limit.

As a metric, Blood Alcohol Concentration refers to the percent of alcohol (ethyl alcohol or ethanol) present in a person's bloodstream. A BAC of 0.10-percent indicates an individual's total blood-volume contains one-part alcohol for every 1,000 parts blood. In the U.S. the BAC limit for pilots is 0.04-percent; for motorists it’s 0.08-percent.

United Airlines set forth in a statement: “The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority. We hold all our employees to the highest standards and have a strict no-tolerance policy for alcohol. This employee was immediately removed from service and we are fully cooperating with local authorities.”

When questioned, Henry W. stated he’d consumed only two glasses of wine the night prior to the flight. Possessed of empirical evidence to the contrary, French police arrested and jailed him—pleas of innocence notwithstanding.

The presiding judge at Henry W.’s court proceeding expressed doubts vis-à-vis the defendant’s account of how much and when he’d drunk, stating: “there could have been a plane crash; you put 267 passengers at risk.”

In addition to the aforementioned six-month suspended sentence and year-long revocation of his flying privileges, Henry W. was assessed a €4,500 ($4,961) fine. Moreover, he will likely face additional asperities—legal and professional alike—upon returning to the U.S.

FMI: www.faa.gov/pilots/safety/pilotsafetybrochures/media/alcohol.pdf 

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Final Report: Rutan Long-EZ

He Attempted To Restart The Engine Three Times. On The Third Restart Attempt, He Noticed That Flames Were Coming Out From The Right Wing Near The Fuel Cap Analysis: The pilot repor>[...]

ANN FAQ: Turn On Post Notifications

Make Sure You NEVER Miss A New Story From Aero-News Network Do you ever feel like you never see posts from a certain person or page on Facebook or Instagram? Here’s how you c>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: ICAS Perspectives - Advice for New Air Show Performers

From 2009 (YouTube Edition): Leading Air Show Performers Give Their Best Advice for Newcomers On December 6th through December 9th, the Paris Las Vegas Hotel hosted over 1,500 air >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.28.25)

Aero Linx: NASA ASRS ASRS captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data, and disseminates vital information to the aviation community. The ASRS is an i>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.28.25)

“For our inaugural Pylon Racing Seminar in Roswell, we were thrilled to certify 60 pilots across our six closed-course pylon race classes. Not only did this year’s PRS >[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC