Russian Prosecutors Said Pilot Had An Elevated Blood Alcohol Level

The captain of an Aeroflot Boeing 737 which went down in Russia September 14th, 2008 had alcohol in his system at the time of the accident which killed all 88 people on board the aircraft.

The Russian Aviation Safety Authority initially had cited engine failure as the cause, but in a statement carried on Interfax on Monday, the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office in Russia said Capt. Rodion Medvedev became disoriented and lost control while descending through a thick layer of clouds. That disorientation was due to "a mentally unstable condition stemming form the presence of alcohol in his body," and was the cause of the accident, the statement said.

The New York Times reports that the president of the Russian Pilots Union Miroslav Y. Boychuk said the statement was the first to conclude the pilot was drunk, and to his knowledge it was the first time such a conclusion had been reached in the crash of a Russian commercial airliner.

FMI: http://eng.genproc.gov.ru/