Two Delta Air Lines flight attendants were pulled from an international flight last week after they were randomly breathalyzed by Dutch authorities and failed the test.
The flight was set to leave Amsterdam for New York’s JFK International Airport on Friday when a female flight attendant reportedly showed a blood alcohol level seven times over the legal limit for crew members, and a male flight attendant failed by 0.02, CBS News reported, citing an official familiar with the matter.
The female Delta employee was fined 1,900 euros, equal to about $2,000, and her male colleague was fined 275 euros, or about $290.
However, the pair of Delta employees weren’t the only ones to fail the random screening, as according to Aviation A2Z, another flight attendant was found to be 6.5 times over the limit. The third flight attendant was fined 1,800 euros. Dutch police confirmed this in a statement.
The three were the only ones flagged during the police’s three-hour screening period in which they screened 445 pilots and flight attendants at Schiphol Airport.
A Delta spokesperson shared with CBS News that the incident did not affect the flight.
“Delta’s alcohol policy is among the strictest in the industry, and we have zero tolerance for violation. The employees were removed from their scheduled duties, and the flight departed as scheduled,” the spokesperson said.
The European Air Safety Agency restricts alcohol consumption for aircrew, and the Netherlands specifically bans pilots and crew members from drinking within 10 hours of their flight.
The agency also warns that merely adhering to the “bottle to throttle” time rule does not always mean they will also comply with the legal blood alcohol concentration limits.
In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration recommends flight crew blood alcohol levels be below 0.02. The agency also has a policy of eight hours between drinking and flying.