JAL to punish 5 executives over pilot drinking scandal

Japan Airlines passenger planes are seen on the tarmac at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on December 26, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)

Tokyo (Jiji Press) — Japan Airlines, or JAL, will punish President Mitsuko Tottori, Chairperson Yuji Akasaka and three other executives over a scandal in which two pilots drank more alcohol than allowed by internal rules the day before taking charge of a flight last year, company officials said Friday.

Tottori and Akasaka will take a 30 pct pay cut for two months, the officials said.

Last week, JAL submitted to the transport ministry measures to prevent a recurrence, such as drawing up a list of crew members who tend to drink heavily and keeping an eye on them.

“There was a wrong decision on an important point involving directors,” Tottori told reporters after submitting the preventive measures. “We are deeply sorry.” She also said that the company will remove Akasaka from the post of safety controller.

According to JAL and the ministry, the two male pilots drank alcohol in the afternoon the day before working on a flight from Melbourne to Tokyo on Dec. 1. They tested positive for alcohol in the morning of Dec. 1, but the company considered the possibility of errors in the tests and allowed them to operate the flight after delaying its departure by about three hours.

On Dec. 3, the pilots admitted that they had been drinking that day. The following day, JAL held a board meeting and decided that this did not need to be reported to the ministry. However, the company made a report on Dec. 6, at the instruction of Akasaka.

Considering the incident to be a malicious violation, the ministry issued a business improvement recommendation to JAL on Dec. 27 and ordered it to submit preventive measures by Friday.