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Pilots' drinking night brings day in court

Jury selection begins for the trial of two former pilots accused of operating a plane in Miami while drunk.

MIAMI - Airport security worker Krishna Vega immediately noticed an overpowering odor of alcohol coming from an America West pilot preparing to board a cross-country flight one morning in July 2002, thinking it was "very weird."

"If you had a match ... " Vega remembers thinking, according to court documents.

Nearly three years later, jury selection is scheduled to begin today for the trial of former pilot Thomas Cloyd of Peoria, Ariz., and former co-pilot Christopher Hughes of Leander, Texas, on charges of operating an aircraft while drunk.

Both pilots were fired, lost their commercial licenses and are barred from recreational flying as a condition of bail. If convicted they could face up to five years in prison, though under sentencing guidelines it is unlikely they would serve nearly that long.

Their case was the highest-profile among several involving allegedly drunken pilots that led the Federal Aviation Administration in 2003 to tighten procedures on revoking flying certificates for pilots charged with alcohol or drug offenses.

Prosecutors say the two were intoxicated as they boarded their America West flight from Miami to Phoenix, an Airbus with 124 people on board, after a drinking binge at a Coconut Grove bar.

Vega and another Miami International Airport security worker reported to the Transportation Security Administration that the pilots appeared to have been drinking. The plane, which was being towed from the gate with engines running, was ordered back and police arrested Hughes and Cloyd.

Police reports quote both as saying they drank "too many" pints of beer. Their time in the bar, from 8:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m., was captured on a security video. The flight was scheduled to leave at 10:30 a.m. FAA regulations prohibit pilots from flying within eight hours of consuming alcoholic beverages.

"The defendants engaged in a night of revelry," prosecutors said in court documents. "During that time, they drank copious amounts."

Blood alcohol tests on both showed results above 0.08 percent, the level at which Florida law presumes someone is unable to safely operate a vehicle.

They might have gotten onto the plane unnoticed, but Cloyd got into an argument with security personnel who stopped him from bringing a prohibited cup of coffee aboard. Vega said that was when he smelled the alcohol. Defense attorneys for Cloyd and Hughes unsuccessfully sought to suppress their statements and much of the evidence, contending police did not have sufficient reason to arrest them. They also argued futilely that federal law, not Florida law, should be applied in their case. The former pilots also contend they aren't guilty because the jetliner was being towed from the gate, meaning they did not have direct control of the plane when they were arrested. Prosecutors, however, cite FAA regulations that say a pilot is in control if he has "the capacity to operate the vehicle, regardless of whether or not he is operating the vehicle at the time of the alleged offense."

The attorney for Hughes, James Rubin, also said in court papers that because Hughes was only the first officer or co-pilot, Cloyd was the operator of the aircraft, especially while it was still on the ground.

One reason the case has taken so long to reach trial was a lengthy federal court battle over jurisdiction. A federal judge agreed with the pilots' claim that they could not be prosecuted under Florida law unless there was loss of life, injury or damage. But that ruling was reversed by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

[Last modified May 18, 2005, 00:49:11]