Amy Packham was instructed by Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) South East in this case concerning a British Airways pilot, Julian Monaghan, whose blood alcohol at testing was 86mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, considerably over the 20mg legal limit for pilots.

Colleagues called the police after smelling alcohol when he boarded the Boeing 777 plane to Mauritius at Gatwick Airport. Mr Monaghan queried the results and claimed to have abided by BA’s 8 hour rule prohibiting pilots from drinking alcohol for 8 hours before going on duty, particularly as he wasn’t scheduled to take over as pilot until 3.5 hours into the flight.

However, the samples taken were found to be accurate after re-testing. Moreover, as quoted by the BBC, Amy Packham said the results taken at 22.30 GMT were so high that, if he had abided by the 8 hour rule, he must have consumed a “significant amount” of alcohol to produce that reading 10.5 hours later.

At Lewes Crown Court, Mr Monaghan admitted to being over the limit and was jailed for 8 months. He has also resigned as a pilot from BA.

The BBC featured the case on 12/06/18, read the full article here.