AirBaltic pilot sentenced to 10 months in prison

The captain of a flight of the Latvian airline airBaltic was sentenced Monday by a Norwegian court to 10 months in prison for failing a breathalyzer test before he was to fly a plane with over 100 passengers, local media reported.

Five airBaltic crew members were stopped on Aug. 8 at an alcohol control at Oslo Airport and four of them failed the test shortly before they were to fly the tourist charter plane to Chania on the Greek island of Crete.

The prosecutors said the four crew members, including the pilot and the co-pilot, admitted they had drunk liquor and blood tests showed that they were all above the legal blood alcohol content limit of 0.2 per mille.

The Upper Romerike District Court on Monday found the Latvian pilot, who had a blood alcohol content of 0.54 per mille, guilty on all three counts in the indictment against him, according to local daily Aftenposten.

He was charged with being intoxicated while trying to fly an aircraft, having consumed alcohol less than eight hours before the service, and failing to fulfill his responsibilities as captain.

The pilot's defense attorney Nora Hallen told public broadcaster NRK that the sentencing was too strict for her client, who had pleaded guilty to only the first count in the indictment, and they would go through the judgment before they could decide on the appeal issue.

The co-pilot was sentenced to six months in prison last month while the two flight attendants were sentenced to jail for 45 and 60 days respectively. Endit