US pilot admits being over alcohol limit

A US pilot has pleaded guilty to being over the alcohol limit as he prepared to take off from Heathrow Airport.

Erwin Washington, 51, from Lakewood, Colorado, was arrested in November last year on a flight that was due to leave Heathrow Airport.

A breath test showed Washington was more than three times the permitted limit to fly a plane.

The United Airlines pilot will be sentenced on 5 February, Uxbridge Magistrates' Court ruled.

Flight cancelled

Washington was due to captain a Boeing 767 bound for Chicago with 124 passengers and 11 crew members on board on 9 November last year.

The plane's departure was imminent when a colleague smelled alcohol on his breath. Police arrived and arrested him.

The flight was subsequently cancelled and passengers were put on other planes.

Kevin Christie, prosecuting, said: "Mr Washington was arrested as it was believed he had reported for work and had intended to fly the aircraft in the role of captain."

The court heard that on his arrest Washington, who has a military record, replied: "Okay, fine."

A breath test recorded a reading of 31 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, with the legal limit being nine micrograms.

A blood test revealed 50 milligrams of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The limit for pilots is 20 milligrams of alcohol, compared to the legal limit of 80 milligrams for motorists.

Defending, Chris Humphreys said Washington was "remorseful".

Legislation regarding aviation staff over the legal limit for flying has only been used seven times since it was introduced in 2003, Mr Humphreys said.

He added: "There are, thankfully, very few cases of this sort."

Magistrates' chairman Geoff Edwards said their powers were insufficient to sentence Washington, who will instead be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court in February.

Magistrates could have imposed a maximum £5,000 fine, a Crown Prosecution spokesman said.

But at crown court, Washington could be jailed for a maximum of two years and given a fine, or solely face a fine.

The pilot was released on unconditional bail.

US aware 'Nigerian' prepared for terror attack

The US was aware that "a Nigerian" in Yemen was being prepared for a terrorist attack - weeks before an attempted bombing on a US plane.

ABC News and the New York Times say there was intelligence to this effect, but its source is unclear.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab flew from Lagos to Amsterdam before changing planes for a flight to Detroit on which he allegedly tried to detonate a bomb.

The Netherlands is to introduce body scanners on US flights within weeks.

Dutch Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst said Mr Abdulmutallab did not raise any concerns as he passed through Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport to board the flight.

She said the airport would be able to use body scanners on all flights to the US from the airport in three weeks. Nigerian authorities also said they would start using the machines next year.

Obama denounces lapses

Ms Ter Horst said that though the US had previously not wanted the scanners to be used because of privacy concerns, Washington had now agreed that "all possible measures will be used on flights to the US".

"It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster," she said.

US President Barack Obama has acknowledged unacceptable security failures.

He said a systemic failure allowed Mr Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, to fly to the US on 25 December despite family members warning officials in November that he had extremist views.

The source of the intelligence about "a Nigerian" in Yemen was reported as coming from the Yemeni government or from US intercept intelligence, which can refer to intercepted e-mail and phone calls.

Mr Obama said he wanted to know why a warning weeks ago from Mr Abdulmutallab's father did not lead to the accused being placed on a no-fly list.

"We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix flaws in the system," Mr Obama said.

Some passengers and crew tackled Mr Abdulmutallab in his seat about 20 minutes before landing in Detroit as he allegedly tried to detonate explosives in his underwear.

Initial investigations found he had used the explosive PETN and a syringe filled with liquid.

The Dutch interior minister described the bomb as professionally made but executed in an "amateurish" way.

She said Mr Abdulmutallab had passed through standard security checks, including a metal detector and a hand baggage scan, without raising suspicions.

Nigerian airports 'safe'

Mr Abdulmutallab has reportedly told investigators that he trained in Yemen with al-Qaeda.

He was living in Yemen from August to early December, the foreign ministry said, according to an earlier report from the official Saba news agency.

He had a visa to study Arabic at an institute in the capital, Sanaa.