A British Airways flight attendant was recently arrested and dismissed for consuming multiple bottles of wine before a flight, registering eight times over the legal alcohol limit. Deborah Merritt, aged 59, was on duty during a three-hour trip from London Heathrow to Malaga, Spain, where passengers noticed her unsteady behavior in April. Merritt was seated and restrained for the duration of the flight due to her condition.
Upon landing in Spain, Merritt was detained, and tests revealed her alcohol level was 70mcg in 100ml of breath, surpassing the permitted 9mcg limit for flight crew. At the Uxbridge Magistrates Court, her defense attorney, Ghulam Ali, stated that stress from a family matter led Merritt to drink excessively, believing it would be metabolized before the flight. Despite her regret, British Airways terminated her employment following the incident.
Merritt pleaded guilty to a charge related to alcohol consumption, with a secondary breath test showing a reading of 52mcg. She was fined £768 and ordered to pay £392 in costs. This incident follows another case involving a British Airways flight attendant, Haden Pentecost, who was found naked and under the influence of drugs in a plane lavatory during a transatlantic journey from San Francisco to London. Pentecost, from Basingstoke, was given a suspended six-month prison sentence and assigned 80 hours of unpaid work, along with £150 in costs, for impairing his ability to perform aviation duties while under the influence.