Japan Airlines grounded a flight from Dallas to Tokyo last week after a hotel room noise complaint exposed the captain’s excessive drinking the night before its scheduled takeoff.
The airline confirmed that flight JL11 from Dallas to Tokyo on April 23 was canceled because its unidentified 49-year-old pilot was allegedly drinking with crew members the night before, Japanese outlet The Mainchi reported.
Guests reportedly made several complaints about the pilot and crew members’ behavior in the hotel lounge and a hotel room after they returned from dinner in Dallas. Police issued a warning to the pilot after they were called to the scene around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Japan Airlines told USA Today.
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A passenger aircraft operated by Japan Airlines Co. (JAL) is pictured at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, April 26, 2024. (Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Although the pilot did not violate the airline’s guidelines against drinking within 12 hours of liftoff, Japan Airlines said they canceled the flight due to “the need to assess the captain’s physical and mental well-being.”
The airline specified that the flight was not canceled because the pilot was intoxicated at the time of the flight:
“It is true that the captain consumed alcohol,” a spokesperson told the Japanese outlet, noting that “there was a sufficient interval between alcohol consumption and the scheduled duty time.”
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Japan Airlines said in a statement that although the pilot assigned to fly from Dallas to Tokyo wasn’t drunk at the time of the scheduled flight, they removed him to assess his “physical and mental well-being” after police were called to the hotel where he was drinking with two crew members two nights earlier. The airline was unable to find a replacement pilot in time, they said. (Getty Images)
Japan Airlines said they were unable to find a replacement pilot in time for the flight’s scheduled departure.
“We sincerely apologize to the customers who were involved in this flight cancelation,” the airline wrote in a statement. “In order to prevent such an incident from happening again, we will thoroughly implement measures to prevent recurrence and work to restore trust in our airline.”
Passengers were diverted to an American Airlines flight – it is unclear whether their schedule was offset by the shift. An American Airlines plane is seen on February 17, 2019 at Charlotte International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. (DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)
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Passengers on flight JL11 were transferred to an American Airlines flight – it is unclear whether they experienced delays.
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