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...head of the Federal Aviation Administration. Blakey, who has been chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board for less than a year, is a smart choice. Though she doesn't have much direct aviation experience, Blakey is a veteran Washington hand, a former Transportation Department (which houses the FAA) official, and a successful businesswoman who ran her own public relations firm for years. Blakey has gotten high marks in her short tenure at the NTSB, the agency which investigates aviation accidents, and is sure to bring her p.r. savvy to the oft-criticized FAA, one agency in Washington that could...
...Hughes'. But the warning signs in Cloyd's case were just the kind to evade industry scrutiny. Cloyd joined America West 12 years ago, but the airline knew nothing about his '86 DUI arrest (he was convicted on a lesser charge of reckless driving) because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not require pilots to report alcohol- or drug-related convictions until 1990, and the rule was not retroactive. America West discovered his record only after police took him off the plane. The 1998 charges were eventually dropped, but he was convicted of disorderly conduct...
...even if the Arizona-based airline had known, says spokeswoman Janice Monahan, disorderly conduct, even if it involved alcohol, "probably would not have been a disqualifying situation." The FAA concurs, but an agency spokeswoman says it is "always re-evaluating [its] policies." She notes that pilots who self-report alcohol problems are given counseling and can return to work if they quit drinking. About 1,000 airline pilots who have finished that program are flying again today...
Cloyd was not one of them. The Breathalyzer tests he and Hughes took in Miami suggest a bender that would make a frat house blush. America West bars pilots from drinking 12 hours before a flight; FAA rules say eight hours. Florida's legal blood-alcohol limit is .08. After he allegedly drank much of the night of June 30 in Miami's Coconut Grove section, say police, Cloyd's blood-alcohol level was still .091 the next morning, even as he was about to pilot the 10:38 a.m. flight. Hughes' was .084. Miami airport guards...
...bail, both are to be arraigned later this month and face five years in prison. (Neither could be reached for comment.) Until they were taken off the plane, Hughes, who joined America West in 1999, and Cloyd had clean piloting records. They have since been fired, and the FAA has taken away their licenses. But the airline and the agency still need to consider, at least in Cloyd's case, why they came so close to a potentially dangerous instance of Flying While Intoxicated...