A federal judge ruled that state law doesn't permit Florida to prosecute two former American West pilots who planned to operate a plane while intoxicated, CNN reported Aug. 6.

Federal Judge Patricia Seitz in Miami, Fla., said that federal law applies in the case of pilots Christopher Hughes and Thomas Cloyd. Both were set to fly an America West jetliner from Miami to Phoenix, Ariz., on July 1, 2002, with 124 passengers on board when the flight was recalled by Miami-Dade police, tipped off to drinking by the pilots.

Cloyd was found to have a blood-alcohol level of .091, while Hughes had a .084 level.

The DUI standard under federal law is .10 percent, while in Florida it's .08. Under the federal standard, the pilots would not be considered legally drunk and therefore, not face criminal prosecution.

The ruling by Seitz upholds a motion filed by the pilots to dismiss the state charges. In her ruling, Seitz said that federal law supersedes state law with respect to pilot qualifications where there is no loss of life, injury, or damage to property involved.

"The state lacks jurisdiction to prosecute them for matters that are solely within the jurisdiction of the federal government," said Seitz.

The Miami-Dade County state attorney's office said it would appeal the judge's ruling.

06/10/2005

Midland Reporter Telegram

Former Midland Pilot Convicted of 2002 Drunkenness in America West Airliner

By Ed Todd

MRT Correspondent

Thomas Cloyd Jr., a 47-year-old former Midlander who grew up in aviation and who, until July 2002, was a pilot for America West Airlines, and his co-pilot, Christopher Hughes, 44, were convicted this week by a Miami jury for being drunk in the cockpit of their airliner just prior to take-off on a Miami-to-Phoenix flight.

"He (Cloyd) just made a terrible, terrible mistake," said Tom Dollahite, a retired Midland corporate pilot who has known Cloyd since his growing-up years in Midland and was a dear friend to Cloyd's late father, Tom Cloyd Sr., a fellow corporate pilot who died at age 64 in the 1995 crash of a Commemorative Air Force B-26 Marauder bomber of World War II vintage. The senior Cloyd, who was not piloting the B-26 at time of the crash, was a seasoned CAF pilot who regularly flew the B-29 Superfortress and the B-24 Liberator.

The younger Cloyd is a 1976 graduate of Midland's Robert E. Lee High School. "He was kind of my surrogate son," Dollahite said. "He and my son, Tommy Jr., grew up together."

Dollahite's son, a retired United States Air Force pilot, currently is flying for Southwest Airlines.

Cloyd's mother, Margaret Cloyd, lives in Midland and is active in the CAF.

The Associated Press reported earlier this week that Cloyd and Hughes could be placed on probation or could be sentenced up to five years in prison at sentencing on July 20. Florida Circuit Court Judge David Young ordered both men to be jailed and held without bail, The AP reported.

"I sure hope they (the courts) are lenient on their sentence," Dollahite said, "but ... ."

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) "immediately" revoked Cloyd's and Hughes' commercial pilot's licenses after their Miami-to-Phoenix flight was canceled as their Airbus 319 was being removed from the gate by a tug in readying for flight on July 1, 2002.

Security screeners at Miami International Airport had detected the strong scent of alcohol on the pilots' breath, and Cloyd had gotten got into an argument because he wanted to bring a prohibited cup of coffee aboard the airliner, The AP reported. Airport police ordered the airliner to return to the terminal.

Aboard the flight were 124 passengers and three flight attendants, The AP reported.

"We have protected some lives today," Florida prosecutor Deisy Rodriguez said Wednesday following the two-week trial. She had characterized the pilot and co-pilot as "stumbling, fumbling" drunks who put the passengers' lives in grave danger, The AP reported.

Testimony indicated the pilots had drunk 14 beers between them late into the night prior to the scheduled morning departure of their flight.

Cloyd and Hughes "demonstrated careless and reckless behavior by getting into that cockpit under the influence of alcohol," Rodriguez said.

The AP also reported defense lawyers stated testimony indicated neither pilot was visibly intoxicated and the pilots were not in control of the aircraft when airport police ordered the airliner back to the terminal. The aircraft was being positioned by a tug for taxiing and then for takeoff.

"Flight doesn't occur until the plane begins to move under its own power," said Cloyd's defense attorney Daniel Foodman, The AP reported. "Nobody was in danger. Nobody testified Mr. Cloyd did anything wrong in that cockpit."

However, Florida prosecutor Armando Hernandez said, "Within the aviation community, it was clear they were operating this aircraft" before the engines were powered up and before takeoff, The AP reported.

Cloyd, who lives in Peoria, Ariz., and Hughes, who resides in Leander, did not testify in their own defense during the trial.

Court testimony revealed the pilots had consumed 14 beers and had a $122 tab at a Coconut Grove sports bar until 4:40 a.m. on morning of the scheduled departure of their flight at 10:30 a.m., The AP reported. Sobriety breath tests hours later showed the pilots' blood-alcohol level was above Florida's legal limit of 0.08 percent. Experts testified the blood-alcohol levels were probably much higher when the pilots boarded the airplane.

Hughes' defense attorney, James Rubin, said even if the pilots had been drinking the night before their flight, they exhibited no signs of drunkenness.

"There was no untoward sign of impairment," Rubin said in closing arguments, according to The AP. "They appeared to be acting in a normal fashion."

The AP reported that "central to the defense" was whether the two pilots legally were operating the airliner prior to takeoff. However, Rodriguez, the prosecutor, cited testimony that both pilots had performed flight checks for 30 minutes before the airliner was pushed away from the airport gate and the pilots, when questioned by police on the day of their arrest, said "yes" when asked if they had been operating an aircraft.

"They confessed, and they indicated that absolutely they were operating that aircraft," Rodriguez said in The AP report.

Jury: Former pilots guilty of being drunk in cockpit

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- A Miami-Dade County jury on Wednesday found two former America West pilots guilty of operating an aircraft while drunk. The verdict came three years after the pilots had gone on an all-night drinking binge.

The six-man jury convicted pilot Thomas Cloyd of Peoria, Ariz., and co-pilot Christopher Hughes of Leander, Texas, after deliberating for about six hours. Both men wept as the verdicts were read.

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

With the number of commercial airline pilots testing positive for alcohol more than doubling in 2002, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has established new procedures for dealing with intoxicated pilots, the Associated Press reported June 18.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After a doubling of airline pilots failing Breathalyzer tests, the government has tightened procedures to keep those caught drunk out of the cockpit.

Last year, 22 commercial airline pilots tested positive for alcohol use, up from nine in 2001, and nine pilots have tested positive this year. That's only a fraction of the approximately 75,000 U.S. airline pilots but enough to cause the Federal Aviation Administration to establish new procedures for dealing with drunk pilots.

The jump in numbers, first reported by Newsday, led the FAA to change its policy in January so that pilots who fail sobriety tests immediately have both their medical and airman's certificates revoked. Both certificates are required for a pilot to fly.

Previously, only the medical certificate was revoked in cases of drug or alcohol use, said John Mazor, spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest pilots' union.

Pilots can get caught in two ways: as part of the Transportation Department's random tests of 10,000 airline pilots every year, or if their behavior arouses suspicion among airline officials or law enforcement officers.

Pilots must wait a year and go through rehabilitation to get their medical certificates restored. To get their airman's certificate, they must also wait a year and then retake all the written and flight tests required to fly a plane.

An increasing number of pilots caught drunk while on duty doesn't necessarily mean more intoxicated pilots are trying to fly planes, experts say. It may mean more are getting caught.

"There is a higher level of public awareness," said Greg Overman, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Union, which represents pilots at American Airlines. "The number of false accusations has risen, and even when there's a false accusation by a passenger or a security screener, it tends to make headlines."

In February, a pilot removed from a Delta Air Lines flight at Norfolk International Airport was acquitted of operating a plane under the influence of alcohol.

Two America West pilots accused of trying to fly drunk on a Phoenix-bound flight from Miami last year are scheduled to be tried in Florida state court on July 7.

In all three cases, federal security screeners had smelled alcohol on the pilots.

Robert Johnson, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, said airline passengers as well as screeners are more likely to report something unusual at an airport since the September 11 terror attacks.

Screeners are not trained to look for impaired pilots, Johnson said. "Their job is to search for and keep prohibited items off the aircraft." If a screener observes drunken behavior, he or she is directed to report it to a supervisor, who has the authority to report it to law enforcement and local airline officials, he said.

MIAMI Two pilots who were drunk in the cockpit have lost an appeals court bid to overturn their convictions and prison sentences.

The pair were about to fly an American West plane from Miami to Phoenix back in 2002. But an airport screener smelled alcohol on their breath, and as the jet was being towed from the gate, police came out and ordered it brought back.

Testimony at their trial showed the pair spent six hours at a sports bar, consuming 14 glasses of beer before leaving less than six hours before takeoff. Tests later showed them still above Florida's legal limit for drunken driving.

One of the pilots had been on probation for a highway D-U-I just months before. He got five years behind bars for operating a jetliner when drunk. His partner was sentenced to two and a-half years.

Both have been fired by America West.

Source: http://kvoa.com/