Japan Airlines Faces Backlash Over Pilot Alcohol Scandals

How seriously do pilots treat their job responsibilities? Aircraft accidents cause enormous harm and directly affect the lives of passengers and crew. If anyone should understand this, it is an airline pilot. Yet Japan Airlines (JAL), embroiled in a series of alcohol-related scandals, has appeared strikingly nonchalant in handling the fallout.

On August 27, the day before he was scheduled to captain a flight from Hawaii, a JAL pilot consumed three 568-milliliter bottles of beer in his hotel room. The next day he reported feeling unwell. Although a substitute pilot was eventually found, three flights were delayed for up to 18 hours, disrupting about 630 passengers.

This was not an isolated case. In April 2024, a JAL flight to Haneda was canceled after a pilot in the United States was warned by local police for causing a disturbance while drinking. In December, blood tests on the captain and co-pilot of a Melbourne–Narita flight showed alcohol levels above company limits, resulting in a three-hour departure delay. The pilots then attempted to cover up the incident.

JAL has since banned all alcohol consumption by pilots while on layovers and compiled a list of employees known to drink excessively. It has also reported to Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on steps taken to prevent recurrences, such as stricter supervision.

Nevertheless, the captain involved in the Hawaii incident was already listed as an employee who should be monitored and had been advised to limit his drinking in a performance review. Hotel tests had repeatedly detected alcohol on about 60 occasions, and he even tampered with devices to falsify test dates. Since May, he was found to have drunk alcohol on about 10 layovers. Despite this, JAL allowed him to continue flying—a decision that is both bewildering and frightening.

August 12 marked the 40th anniversary of the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash, which killed 520 people. Families gathered at a memorial garden in Gunma Prefecture near the crash site to honor the victims. After the ceremony, JAL President Mitsuko Tottori reaffirmed that “safety is our top priority … for 50 and 100 years to come,” and vowed to address the pilot drinking problem.

But promises about safety decades into the future ring hollow when the airline breaks its own standards today. Transport Minister Hiromasa Nakano said, “I have to say that safety awareness is not thoroughly instilled in each and every employee at JAL.” For Japan Airlines to regain public trust, every employee must return to the resolve shown in the aftermath of the Osutaka tragedy.


Related News: https://airguide.info/?s=japan+airlines, https://airguide.info/category/air-travel-business/travel-health-security/

Sources: AirGuide Business airguide.info, bing.com, japan-forward.com