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Copilot peeing in public cancels JAL flight from Honolulu

by Scott Carmichael (RSS feed) on Jul 2nd 2009 at 4:30PM

Of all the reasons to have your flight canceled, I'm pretty sure this one is high on the "no frikkin way!" list.

The copilot of JAL flight 75 from Honolulu to Narita was arrested by local police for urinating in a park. The copilot had consumed a bottle of wine and 5 bottles of beer, when the urge "to go" was clearly greater than the urge to find an appropriate place to relive himself.

When a police officer saw him, the copilot was arrested and delivered to the police station. He was then detained for two nights before being released after paying a $25 fine.

JAL issued a statement declaring that they "deeply apologize for causing inconvenience to the passengers".

My main concern is why a copilot is consuming so much alcohol. The only upside is that he was arrested on Tuesday, and his flight was not scheduled to depart till Thursday, leaving him plenty of time to get the alcohol out of his system.

You can see the actual flight status, and its cancellation over at Flightstats.com. The passengers had to be rebooked on other flights. If I were a passenger on this plane, I'd be mighty pissed (pardon the pun). I've heard a lot of reasons for a cancellation or delay, but a urinating copilot is a first.

Filed under: North America, United States, Airlines, News

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Daniel Jul 3rd 2009 1:54PM

I remember spending a night drinking at the original Rainbow Bar in Nha Trang with what I assumed was a german tourist. At about 4am, he stood up, pushed his beer to the back of the bar and then announced, "I gotta go, I have a flight tomorrow". "Really?" I asked "where are you going?". "To work," was his reply. "I'm a pilot". Seriously.