British Airways' staff suspended over alcohol claims

In this story: Safety 'not compromised' Suspended staff were 'trapped' RELATED STORIES, SITES

LONDON, England -- British Airways has launched an inquiry into allegations of a breach of alcohol-drinking rules after suspending 11 pilots and three cabin crew.

In a statement, BA said allegations had been made that crew members "had breached BA regulations governing alcohol consumption before a flight."

The suspended staff were all employed on short-haul European flights mainly operated out of London's Gatwick Airport.

The suspensions, made last Friday, followed a Channel 4 TV investigation in which a woman posed at hotels as a former BA stewardess and drank with crew members.

BA said it had requested that the maker's of Channel 4's Dispatches programme, which made the allegations, hand over to the airline "any evidence that will assist the investigation as a matter of course."

The statement added: "In order not to prejudice any investigation, there will be no public comment on the specific allegations until the conclusion of our inquiry."

British Airways crew members are not allowed to consume alcohol during the eight hours before reporting for flight duty and must only drink in moderation during the 16 hours before that.

BA's safety director David Hyde said: "BA takes any potential breach of regulations very seriously.

"We have launched a formal investigation and have notified the Civil Aviation Authority of the allegations and the actions we are taking."

He added: "There is no suggestion that safety was compromised on any of the flights that followed alleged drinking incidents.

"These allegations surprise us but we are erring on the side of caution in removing staff from duty pending an investigation."

Meanwhile, Chris Drake, of the UK's Airline Pilots Association, said Dispatches had used former BA cabin crew to befriend current staff.

He accused Channel 4 of using "underhand and disgraceful journalistic methods, which could be described as entrapment."

Darke said some of the evidence in the documentary, scheduled to be screened next week, was filmed several months ago.

Melinda McDougall, a spokeswoman for Channel 4, said: "We have evidence of BA pilots drinking to excess and then reporting for duty in breach of the eight-hour ban on alcohol.

"That is all we want to say at this stage apart from that we stand by our report and strongly deny any accusations of entrapment."

British Airways grounds Concorde
August 15, 2000

British Airways
Civil Aviation Authority
Channel 4 Television
Gatwick Airport

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.