'Drunk' Latvian flight crew fired, held in Norway

A district Norwegian court ordered Monday that a Latvian pilot and three of his crew be held in custody until trial, after all four failed blood alcohol tests taken at Oslo Airport before their scheduled flight to Crete with the Latvian carrier airBaltic.

Norwegian news agency Norsk Telegrambyra reported that preliminary blood results had corroborated breathalyzer tests taken at the airport early on Saturday. The pilot and his crew were stopped by police and given Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) tests - or "random permille" as they're known in Norwegian society. Four of the five flight crew failed, and they were immediately taken into police custody.

Rough night, tougher morning

Norway has a legal blood alcohol limit of 0.2 permille to operate a motor vehicle - and a plane. The pilot, who tested 0.4 pleaded guilty on Monday, told the court in Nedre Romerike district that this "was a mistake that has ruined my family's future."

His co-pilot, 38, was far more inebriated, testing 1.2 permille. The group said they had been drinking "hard liquor, not beer," the night before their 5.45 a.m. local time takeoff from Oslo's Gardermoen Airport.

Both the captain and the co-pilot have appealed the court's order to have them remanded for two weeks. The court cited "a clear risk that these men may not show up for trial."

Meanwhile, airBaltic, which has 24 flights scheduled from Oslo this week, has reiterated to the public its "zero-tolerance" policy with regard to alcohol consumption by flight personnel.

The four who failed the BAC tests have already been let go, the carrier added.