Four airBaltic crew members held in custody in Norway for alcohol abuse

The captain, the first officer and two flight attendants of an airBaltic flight were ordered Monday by a Norwegian court to be held in custody for one to two weeks after they failed a breathalyzer test at the weekend, local media reported.

Five airBaltic crew members were stopped early Saturday morning at an alcohol control at Oslo Airport and four of them failed the test shortly before they would fly a tourist charter plane with over 100 passengers to Chania on the Greek Island of Crete, according to the online edition of local newspaper VG.

At the hearing on Monday, the prosecutors said four crew members admitted they had drunk liquor on Friday evening and preliminary blood tests showed that they were above the legal blood alcohol content limit of 0.2 per mille, with the captain having 0.4 per mille, the first officer 1.2, one flight attendant 0.8 and the other 0.4.

"We still see a very serious matter. Four of the five crew members were all clearly influenced when they went into service. They have a joint responsibility for safety on board," Kari Karlsen Aas, one of the prosecutors, was quoted as saying.

The prosecutors were seeking custody terms of two weeks for the four crew members, all of them Latvian citizens, for fear that if they leave Norway, they would not return for trials.

The Norwegian court ordered the captain and the first officer held in custody for two weeks and the two flight attendants for one week.

The Latvian airline airBaltic said Monday in a press release that it has suspended the four individuals involved in the Oslo-Chania flight and "is preparing for their dismissal due to the damage caused."

The airline has also introduced additional safety measures following the incident, saying it "has decided to introduce pre-duty breathalyzer tests for 100 percent of the safety-critical personnel." Endit