'Drunken pilot' held

A pilot preparing for takeoff was arrested in an airliner cockpit for allegedly being drunk.

Charles Nicholls, 53, was breathalysed and questioned at Heathrow police station after security staff apparently raised concerns about his behaviour. He has been suspended and now faces the sack after the guards told police they thought they could smell alcohol on his breath.

Mr Nicholls, an experienced pilot for Royal Brunei, had been due to fly some 170 passengers to the country's Bandar Seri Bagawan airport. Police boarded the plane 15 minutes before it was due to take off from Heathrow's Terminal 3 yesterday morning and led the pilot away for questioning.

The flight, believed to hold British tourists and a number of expatriate oil industry workers, was delayed for several hours while a replacement pilot was found. Passengers were told the captain had left the aircraft "to help police with their inquiries" into an incident outside the plane.

The law was tightened last year and it is now an offence for a pilot to have 20mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, compared with the drink-drive limit of 80mg. It is a criminal offence for flying staff and licensed engineers to be over the limit at work.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said today Mr Nicholls had been bailed to return to a police station in mid-August pending further inquiries.

A spokeswoman for Royal Brunei said: "Mr Nicholls has not been charged but an investigation is under way and he has been suspended by the airline until inquiries are completed."

His arrest comes days after British Airways became the first UK air carrier to introduce drug and alcohol testing for its staff.

In recent years a string of drink scandals has damaged the reputation of the airline industry. Three years ago a Channel 4 Dispatches show led to the suspension of 11 BA pilots and three cabin crew amid claims of an "endemic" drinking culture. In November two BA pilots resigned after being accused of being drunk in charge of a passenger airline.