Japan Airlines Pilot Pleads Guilty to Being Drunk at Heathrow Minutes Before Flight

LONDON — The crew of a Japan Airlines flight was traveling by bus to Heathrow Airport here when the bus driver had a suspicion that there was something wrong with the co-pilot.

He could smell it on his breath.

After the bus driver alerted authorities, the co-pilot, Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, 42, was arrested at Heathrow — 50 minutes before his flight to Tokyo. A breath test showed he was almost 10 times over Britain’s legal alcohol limit for pilots.

Jitsukawa admitted he had consumed two bottles of wine and five cans of beer hours before he was to help pilot Flight JL044 last Wednesday, authorities said.

At the Uxbridge Magistrates Court on Thursday, the co-pilot pleaded guilty to exceeding the legal alcohol limit, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said. He was detained until his sentencing Nov. 29.

Japan Airlines apologized for the pilot’s actions and said it would take the violations seriously.

“Safety remains our utmost priority,” the airline said in a statement. “We will implement immediate actions to prevent any future occurrence and to regain our customer’s trust.”

According to the Kyodo News agency, before the bus driver alerted authorities at Heathrow, the pilot had passed the airline’s own breath test.

Because of the pilot’s drunkenness, the flight was delayed for more than an hour, but eventually took off with two pilots instead of the usual three.

Japan’s transport minister has said he will tighten rules about alcohol consumption by flight crews after a series of incidents in the industry.

“We will use all possible means to ensure flight safety,” the minister, Keiichi Ishii, told reporters Friday.

In May, a Japan Airlines flight attendant was caught drinking a beer in a bathroom during a flight, Kyodo reported.

Other incidents of drunkenness among crew members have drawn scrutiny to the industry. In June, a British Airways pilot was jailed for eight months after a breath test found that he was more than three times over the alcohol limit before he was to fly a long-haul flight.

The pilot, Julian Monaghan, had consumed three double vodkas and a Diet Pepsi in his hotel room on an empty stomach before his flight, the BBC reported.

Passengers had already started to board the plane before he was escorted from the cockpit in handcuffs.