A British Airways pilot has been jailed for eight months after being caught more than three times over the alcohol limit while on duty.



Julian Monaghan drank three double vodkas and diet Pepsi in his hotel room on an empty stomach before he was due onboard a long-haul flight from Gatwick to Mauritius on 18 January.

Police were called when Verity McAllen, a technician who was checking the Boeing 777 before takeoff, noticed a strong smell of alcohol on Monaghan’s breath.

Passengers had already started to board the plane when he was taken from the cockpit in handcuffs on suspicion of reporting for duty as a pilot while his level of alcohol was over the limit.

Three hundred people were on the 12-hour flight, which was scheduled to leave at 9.20pm but was delayed for nearly two hours while a replacement pilot was found. It eventually left at about 11pm.

The 49-year-old pleaded guilty after tests revealed he had 86mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system – more than four times the 20mg limit for a pilot.

Monaghan, who worked for BA for 17 years, initially queried the results, but resigned two months after his arrest when further tests confirmed the samples were accurate.

Sentencing him at Lewes crown court on Tuesday, the judge Janet Waddicor said: “You took a risk and it didn’t pay off because you were caught. You are in charge of a huge aircraft. The safety, if not the lives, indeed, of passengers and crew members are in the hands of the pilot. They are entitled to feel that they are safe.”

Monaghan lowered his head as he was handed his sentence before being led to the cells while a woman in the public gallery blew him a kiss.

Monaghan insisted he obeyed by the airline’s eight-hour “bottle to throttle rule”, which forbids pilots from drinking for that period of time before going on duty, and claimed he “felt fine”.

In a prepared statement given to police on his arrest, he said he drank a glass of wine on his overnight flight as a passenger from Cape Town to Heathrow while travelling to report for duty.

Then, when he was in his hotel resting before his shift, he drank a “measure” of vodka with diet Pepsi at about 10.15am and nothing after. He had not eaten and barely slept.

In court, Emlyn Jones, defending, said Monaghan had since remembered drinking three miniature bottles of vodka – each of which are the equivalent to a double bar serving – which he could buy at a discount in a duty-free scheme available to airline staff.

Amy Packham, prosecuting, said the reading taken at 10.30pm remained so high that he must have drunk a “significant amount” just before the eight-hour limit.

Jones said Monaghan was shocked by his arrest and surprised by the readings, and his fall from grace had been very public and had caused huge embarrassment.

His teenage son had not spoken to him since and, due to a costly divorce a decade ago, he had no savings. He was hoping to find work in South Africa – where he was living – by re-training as a drone pilot to take pictures of homes for estate agents, the court heard.

Jones said Monaghan, who gave his address as care of his solicitors, had an “impressive career” after gaining his pilot licence before he was 20. His childhood dream was to be a pilot and he was “proud and delighted” to work for BA, where he was well-liked and trusted by colleagues.

But he had been “extremely stupid” and bitterly regretted his actions, and wanted to apologise to the court, the public, passengers and his family, Jones said.

He added: “He didn’t knowingly arrive at work over the limit. Certainly he will never fly as a commercial pilot again. He appears before your honour as a shadow of the man he once was. His career and livelihood and personal and professional reputation are all up in smoke.”•

Jones said being four times the limit “sounds terrible” but there was no evidence his conduct caused direct harm, adding: “He was not falling down drunk, making mistakes, being rude, picking fights.”

• This article was amended on 13 June 2018. The pilot was not “more than four times over the alcohol limit”, as we said. At 66mg over the 20mg limit, he was more than three times over the limit. He had more than four times the legal limit in his blood. This has been corrected.