Pilot charged with being drunk at Manchester

A Finnish pilot who was due to fly out of Manchester airport has been charged with being drunk while preparing to fly a plane. According to the BBC News website, 50-year-old Heikki Tallila, a pilot for Scandic Air, was arrested on 23 August just before a flight to the Turkish resort of Dalaman. There were 225 passengers on board the plane. The BBC quotes a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police as saying: “A 50-year-old pilot from Finland has this morning been charged with preparing to fly an aircraft while being over the legal limit to fly.” The arrest comes under new laws that allow police to breathalyse pilots and cabin crew if they are suspected of flying or attempting to fly while under the influence of alcohol. The legal limit for pilots is 20 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood – a quarter of the drink-drive limit for road vehicle drivers. Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd