Four airBaltic crew members busted for boozing before a flight
Four liquored-up flight crew members — including two pilots — will be looking for new jobs after their drunken antics kept the airBaltic flight they were scheduled to work on the runway for nearly five hours after its scheduled takeoff time, the Latvian airline announced .
Both the pilots, whose genders were unspecified in reports, and two female flight attendants were immediately removed from the plane and arrested for suspected “alcohol abuse” on Saturday, an Australian news site reported.
Their hazardous shenanigans held up the takeoff of the 109-passenger flight for four hours and 45 minutes, airBaltic said in a statement.
“Results of the Breathalyzer tests confirmed that four of the five crew members were above the legal alcohol limit,” Edith Ek Sorenson, a Norwegian police officer, said.
The employees will be sent packing in exchange for the damage, the carrier said.
Authorities were anonymously tipped off to perform routine Breathalyzer checks on the soused crew behind the postponement of the four-hour flight from Oslo to the Greek island of Crete.
The airline announced it will begin upping the number of Breathalyzer tests it gives employees each day.
“Furthermore, airBaltic has decided to introduce pre-duty Breathalyzer tests for 100% of the safety-critical personnel,” the carrier said in a statement.