'˜Drunk' pilots arrested at Glasgow Airport appear in court

The Air Transat A310 was due to depart Glasgow for Toronto. File picture: Wiki Commons

Jean-Francois Perreault, 39, and Imran Zafar Syed, 37, were arrested before they were due to take off on the Air Transat flight from Glasgow Airport at 1pm on Monday. The pair were also charged with threatening and abusive behaviour during a private appearance at Paisley Sheriff Court, about a mile from the airport, on Tuesday.

The men appeared from custody in front of Sheriff Susan Sinclair and were charged under section 93 of the Railway and Transport Safety Act, which covers alcohol and drug limits in aviation.

Section 93 of the Act states: “A person commits an offence if he performs an aviation function at a time when the proportion of alcohol in his breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit, or he carries out an activity which is ancillary to an aviation function at a time when the proportion of alcohol in his breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit.”

The two pilots were arrested at Glasgow Airport. Picture: PA

For pilots, the limit of alcohol in the case of breath is nine microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres, according to the Act.

Perreault, from the province of Ontario, and Syed, from Toronto, were also charged under section 38 of the Criminal Justice Act which relates to “threatening or abusive behaviour”.

They made no plea or declaration and will appear before the court again within eight days.

The delayed Airbus flight to Toronto set off on Tuesday morning, with passengers having spent Monday night at nearby hotels.

The airline earlier apologised to those affected and offered passengers compensation as a “goodwill gesture”.

A letter to passengers said: “Please accept our sincere apologies for the disruption caused by the delay of your flight. While it is our policy to do everything within our power to ensure on-time performance, regrettably, this is not always the possible.”