Six months jail for drunken pilot
By Maya Salleh
The dismissed Royal Brunei Airlines captain, Charles Nicholls, 54, who was found intoxicated while piloting 200 passengers from Heathrow to Brunei Darussalam July 1 was sentenced to six months in jail by a judge at Isleworth Crown Court Monday. Nicholls admitted that he was carrying out preparations for a flight from Heathrow to Dubai when the proportion of alcohol in his blood exceeded the limit but claimed he had observed the pilots' rule of "12 hours from bottle to throttle", PA news reported. However, Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson at the Isleworth Crown Court squashed his claim by stressing Nicholls' blood-alcohol level was over six times the limit for flying further citing that it was one-and-a-half times the limit for driving a car let alone flying a passenger aircraft. Isleworth Crown Court also heard that Nicholls told police that he had drunk about four-pints the night before the flight and stopped drinking at 9.30pm. Nicholls claimed that he thought by the time of flying the alcohol would have passed through his system yet the Court was told that he had also drunk heavily at lunchtime. During the incident, passengers had already begun boarding the aircraft, a Boeing 767, when police arrived for Nicholls. PA News elaborated that a breath test gave a reading of 69mg of alcohol and a blood test following Nicholls' arrest gave a reading of 125mcg of alcohol. The legal limit for driving is 80mg and for flying 20mg A security officer, during the incident of his arrest, noticed Nicholls reeked of alcohol as he headed to the aircraft to carry out safety checks, thus police were called. As Nicholls was escorted from the aircraft for investigation, the Brunei-bound flight, BI98, was delayed for two hours. Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson, on sentencing Nicholls said in court that Nicholls was entrusted with the safety of the crew, passengers and people on the ground who may have been affected if anything had gone wrong. The Judge also said Nicholls' behaviour was "highly irresponsible and reckless, being a danger to the public." Nicholls was fired instantly by Royal Brunei Airlines and now his future looks bleak for employment prospect, let alone piloting another aircraft at his age. The court also heard Nicholls' counsel stating Nicholls' regrets to his behaviour, as he had already conveyed to Royal Brunei Airlines, emphasising he was desperately sorry for what happened and that he understood "he is now professionally ruined".