Pilot And Crew Arrested For Attempting To Fly After Drinking

An airplane is one of the best places to enjoy a beer or some cocktails, but that really only applies to passengers. An Air Baltic crew in Norway must have been tossing back a few too many of those tiny booze bottles this week, because they all failed a surprise breathalyzer test just as they were scheduled to take off.

According to The Local, an Air Baltic plane was scheduled to fly from Oslo to Greece on Saturday, but just as the pilot and crew were getting ready to take off, Norwegian police showed up with a breathalyzer. An anonymous tipster had called earlier and told police that it looked like the pilot and crew were drinking, and nobody wants to see someone fly a plane drunk. 

According to police, the pilot, co-pilot, and two of the plane's three flight attendants were well above the legal limit. 

"Results of the breathalyzer tests confirmed that four of the five crew members... were above the legal alcohol limit of 0.2 promille," said Romerike police prosecutor Edith Ek Sorensen.

Police instantly took the entire crew, save for the one sober flight attendant, into custody. They will face up to two years in prison for attempting to fly a commercial jet while drunk.

Police say the flight had 109 passengers on board.