I don't agree with this decision at all. It was right that the pilots were fired, as they clearly violated federal pilot rules by drinking within the 8 hours before takeoff. They should have known that they would lose their jobs for that But the evidence in this criminal trial was weak, at best. Nobody knew what the BAC level of the pilots was when the plane was pushed away from the gate. At best, they could say that the pilots were -probably- over .08, which is the limit in Florida (where they were supposed to take off, apparently). Also, the prosecution couldn't claim that the pilots were ever in control of the airplane. If there was a criminal offense of "ATTEMPTED DUI", then that might have applied in this case. MIGHT have applied. But then again, we're back to the problem of nobody knew what the BAC level was at the time of the "attempt". So not even "attempted" DUI could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The sentences seem awfully harsh, considering that there was gobs of reasonable doubt in this case. The plane never flew. The pilots never controlled the airplane, at all. It wasn't known if the pilots were drunk at the time of their arrest. Even if the BAC at arrest time was over .08, that doesn't necessarily mean that the pilots were incapable of safely flying to Phoenix. .08 is way too low to be called "drunk" by any reasonable thinking person. (before someone gets smart, I don't drink, at all, ever) Also, flying is a lot easier than driving. If someone could have told me that the pilots had a BAC of .16 (for example), I still would have boarded the airplane. Large commercial jets practically fly themselves, anyway. Any pilot who's reasonably experienced and not PbuttED OUT drunk could probably manage to fly safely halfway across the country. No sweat! But the odd thing about this is, at time of boarding, the BAC level of the pilots was not known.
Overall, these sentences seem very harsh, considering that the prosecution was nowhere near proving their case beyond a reasonable doubt. They were fired. That's what they deserved. Several years in prison, also? No, that's not called for. IMHO -Dave
