Delta pilot gets 10-month jail sentence for drinking before Scotland to NYC flight

A erstwhile Delta Air Lines aviator has been sentenced successful Scotland to 10 months successful situation aft pleading blameworthy to showing up for activity while intoxicated up of a formation he was group to skipper from Edinburgh to New York City past year. 

Sheriff Alison Stirling told a tribunal Tuesday that Lawrence Russell, 63, arrived astatine nan airdrome pinch a container that was flagged by information and "found to incorporate 2 bottles of Jägermeister, 1 of which was unfastened and was conscionable nether half full" prior to his arrest connected June 16, 2023, according to nan Judiciary of Scotland. 

"Lawrence Barbiers Russell Jr, connected 5 March 2024, astatine nan sheriff tribunal successful Edinburgh you pled blameworthy to reporting for work astatine Edinburgh International Airport arsenic a aviator rostered to aviator arsenic skipper for a Boeing 767 craft scheduled to depart for New York JFK airdrome erstwhile nan proportionality of intoxicant successful your humor was not little than 49 milligrams of intoxicant successful 100 milliliters of blood, which exceeded nan prescribed limit of 20 milligrams," Stirling said. "The humor intoxicant limit for car drivers is 50 milligrams." 

Stirling said Russell, whom media reports opportunity is an American, was wearing a pilot's azygous and a Delta Air Lines lanyard erstwhile his baggage was "rejected by nan x-ray instrumentality owed to nan measurement of liquids wrong it." 

DELTA BOOTS NON-TICKETED PASSENGER FROM FLIGHT AFTER HE TRIED HIDING IN PLANE’S BATHROOMS: REPORT 

A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 rider level arrives astatine JFK International Airport successful New York City connected Feb. 7. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

"You were shown nan bottles of intoxicant and said that you had not drunk recently, but that you had been drinking nan erstwhile evening," she continued. "You were required to springiness a activity sample, and you failed. You were upset astir that." 

Prosecutors opportunity Russell yet gave a humor sample earlier he was charged pinch reporting for work arsenic a pilot while exceeding nan prescribed humor intoxicant limit. 

Stirling said Russell was diagnosed pinch "Severe Alcohol Use Disorder," which he has since completed a betterment programme for. 

DELTA AIR LINES FLIGHT DIVERTED TO ATLANTA AFTER LIGHTER-INVOLVED FLIGHT DISTURBANCE 

Prosecutors opportunity Lawrence Russell told investigators he was drinking nan nighttime earlier his arrest. (Reuters/David Moir  / Reuters Photos)

"The formation you were owed to make to New York had to beryllium canceled, and you are remorseful for nan inconvenience that caused to your employer and nan passengers connected that flight," she besides said. 

Delta Air Lines told Fox Business connected Wednesday that it was "aware of this incident and removed nan aviator from work while conducting a thorough investigation successful coordination pinch Scottish authorities." 

Delta Air Lines tells FOX Business that Lawrence Russell has been fto spell from nan company. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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Russell has been fto spell by nan airline, it added.