Two Russian pilots have been reportedly fired for attempting to fly an Aeroflot flagship carrier’s budget airline plane while drunk.
The two Pobeda airlines pilots tested positive for alcohol in late May ahead of a 4,000-kilometer flight from central Russia’s Surgut to Makhachkala in the North Caucasus, Interfax reported Monday.
“Pobeda has absolutely zero tolerance for [...] employees who allow themselves alcohol even off the clock,” Interfax quoted the airline’s chief Andrei Kalmykov as saying.
According to the state-run TASS news agency, Kalmykov criticized Russian laws for “not allowing the suspension of the offenders’ pilot’s license.”
Mash, the Telegram news service linked to the LifeNews tabloid, reported that the two crew members’ second tests contained a higher blood alcohol content than the first.
“This could have only happened if the pilots downed two or three beers ahead of the medical screening,” it wrote.
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